I stepped forward.
The moment its jaws snapped toward my shoulder—
I swung.
The rusty blade whistled through the air.
Clang!
The impact vibrated through my arms as the sword bit into its shoulder.
Not deep or fatal, But enough to significantly weaken it.
The beast shrieked and stumbled back.
Dark blood dripped onto the ground.
I blinked.
"Bet you didn't see that one coming, did you?"
The creature's eyes burned even brighter.
Apparently it didn't appreciate my surprise.
It charged again.
"Right."
This time I kept moving.
I circled as the beast lunged.
I stepped aside and slashed again.
The blade scraped across its ribs.
Another shallow wound.
But it was slower now.
"Good."
My breathing steadied.
"Bleed a little more."
The beast snarled and jumped again.
I ducked under the claws and stabbed forward.
The rusted blade slid into its chest.
For a moment everything froze.
Then the creature collapsed against me.
Warm blood soaked my hands. My mind was suddenly invaded by a strong sense of disgust.
"...Yikes."
I shoved it away.
The beast twitched once.
Then it stopped moving.
Silence returned.
I stared down at the body.
"That was..."
My chest rose and fell rapidly.
"...Manageable, all things considered."
After a moment a small notification appeared.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
You have slain an Abyss Beast.
Experience gained.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"Nice."
Then my gaze drifted back to the corpse.
And that strange hunger returned.
The same crawling sensation from earlier.
My stomach twisted slightly.
"Right."
I crouched beside the dead beast.
"I was wondering when you'd show up again."
A purple flame flickered faintly across my palm.
Waiting.
I exhaled slowly.
"Well."
I placed my hand on the beast.
"Let's see what monsters taste like."
"Devour."
Purple fire erupted across the corpse.
The beast's body shriveled as crimson particles streamed into my hand.
The process was a bit faster this time, as if the skill had grown accustomed to its own function.
A notification appeared.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Attribute gained: Agility +1
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
I blinked.
"Agility?"
I stood up and stretched my legs.
"...Hm."
Everything felt lighter.
Even the wind brushing past my skin felt clearer.
"Okay."
I looked down at the empty patch of dirt where the beast had been.
"...Morality aside, this skill really isn't so bad."
A slow grin spread across my face.
Then I glanced toward the mountains again.
The Eclipse Mountain.
The objective.
'The place where the Three Treasures of the Lost King were waiting.'
"...That place must be crawling with them."
I lifted my sword onto my shoulder.
"Well."
My smile widened slightly.
"I wonder how strong I will be by the end of this."
Then I started walking toward the mountains.
The ground sloped upward gradually, the cracked plains slowly giving way to rougher terrain. Rocks began jutting out of the soil like broken teeth, and the brittle grass thinned until only bare stone remained.
The Eclipse Mountain looked closer now.
Still massive. Still oppressive.
But closer.
"Good." I muttered to myself.
'The sooner I get there, the sooner I get to actually start working toward the objective. Wandering around the wasteland killing random monsters might help me grow stronger, but eventually I'd have to deal with the Three Treasures of the Lost King.'
'And I have a feeling those weren't guarded by starving wolves.'
The wind howled again, louder this time as it rushed down from the mountain slopes.
Something about it made the back of my neck itch.
I slowed my pace.
My eyes swept across the terrain.
Broken pillars. Jagged rocks. Shallow depressions in the ground where dust had gathered over the years.
Perfect places for something to hide.
"Focus, Endo." I murmured.
I moved more carefully now, stepping between rocks and keeping my sword ready.
Minutes passed. Nothing happened.
Then I saw them.
Three shapes lying near the base of a collapsed stone structure.
My steps slowed.
"People?"
I approached cautiously.
They were bodies.
All three wore the same rough clothes I had woken up in.
'Awakeneds.'
'Or at least... they had been.'
One of them lay face down in the dirt. Another was slumped against the ruined wall with claw marks torn across his chest. The third was barely recognizable.
My stomach tightened.
"..."
I crouched beside the closest body.
'A guy. Maybe early twenties.'
His eyes were still open, staring at nothing.
"...Sorry."
I didn't know why I said it.
Maybe because I knew what was coming next.
That strange hunger had already started creeping back into my stomach.
Slow, and persistent.
Like something inside me was whispering.
I exhaled slowly.
"Right."
My hand hovered over the corpse.
"Let's see if this works on humans too."
The words felt heavier than I expected.
I hesitated.
Then I clenched my jaw.
"They're already dead, Eli." I argued to myself.
My palm touched the body.
"Devour."
Purple flames burst to life again.
The corpse shriveled rapidly, collapsing inward as crimson particles flowed into my hand.
The sensation this time was stronger. Warmer, like drinking something thick and hot.
A notification appeared.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Attribute gained: Endurance +1
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Another message followed immediately.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Attribute gained: Vitality +1
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
My eyes widened.
"Two?"
I quickly opened my status.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Attributes
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Strength: 11
Agility: 11
Endurance: 11
Vitality: 11
Intelligence: 10
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"That's insane."
'Two points from one corpse.'
I looked at the empty ground where the body had been.
'He must have been powerful.'
Then my gaze slowly shifted to the other two.
A strange silence filled the air.
"...I'm not even going to pretend I'm above this."
I walked to the second corpse.
"Devour."
Purple flames erupted again.
The body collapsed into ash-like fragments.
Notifications appeared.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Attribute gained: Strength +1
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
My grip tightened slightly as I turned to the last body.
This one had clearly died fighting.
A broken spear lay beside his hand.
Claw marks covered his armor.
"Fought until the very end, huh."
For a moment I just stood there.
Then the hunger returned again.
Sharp and Impatient.
I sighed.
"I'll make sure it wasn't for nothing."
I knelt down.
"Devour."
The final corpse dissolved into crimson particles.
A notification appeared.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Attribute gained: Strength +1
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
I stood up slowly.
Wind swept across the ruined structure again.
My body felt... different.
Stronger. Sharper.
Alive.
I opened my status again.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Attributes
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Strength: 13
Agility: 11
Endurance: 11
Vitality: 11
Intelligence: 10
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"Probably worth it."
Then I looked toward Eclipse Mountain again.
It loomed closer now.
And suddenly—
A distant howl echoed from the slopes.
Not one.
Many.
My smile faded.
"Fuck."
I lifted my rusty sword again.
"Looks like the locals noticed."
Another howl answered.
Closer this time.
Then another.
The sound spread across the mountainside like a chain reaction.
I rolled my shoulders and stepped forward.
Somewhere far ahead, Something large began moving through the rocks.
The sound was subtle at first.
Stone shifting. Gravel sliding.
Then another sound followed.
'Footsteps.'
Not the light, frantic scratching of the wolf I had fought earlier.
These were heavier. Measured.
I tightened my grip on the rusty sword and slowly stepped forward, trying to keep my movements quiet. The terrain had grown rougher the closer I got to Eclipse Mountain. Large slabs of broken stone jutted out of the ground at odd angles, forming natural cover.
'Good for ambushes.'
'Also good for hiding.'
Which meant something could easily be watching me right now.
"...Great."
I moved around a cracked boulder and paused.
The howling had stopped.
That was worse.
'Silence in a place like this usually means one thing.'
'Something was hunting.'
I crouched slightly, scanning the rocky slope ahead.
"Come on," I whispered. "Show yourself."
For a few seconds, nothing happened.
Then a low growl rolled across the stones.
It came from the left.
I turned just in time to see movement behind a cluster of jagged rocks.
One shape.
Then another.
Then a third.
My stomach sank.
"...You've got to be kidding me."
Three Abyss Beasts stepped into view.
They looked similar to the Wolf I had killed earlier, but these were bigger. Their bodies were thicker, their claws longer, and their eyes burned with the same violent red glow.
System text appeared beside them.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Abyss Beast x3
[Lvl. 2]
[F-Rank]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
'Three of them.'
My mind immediately started calculating.
'One was manageable.'
'Three?'
"That's definitely pushing it."
The beasts hadn't charged yet.
They were circling.
'Smart.'
'Or at least instinctive enough to hunt in a pack.'
One of them lowered its head and sniffed the air.
Then its gaze locked onto the patch of dirt where the other scavenger had been devoured.
Its lips curled back, exposing rows of crooked teeth.
"...Ah," I said slowly. "You smelled that, didn't you."
The beast snarled.
And then all three moved at once.
I jumped back as the closest one lunged. Its claws scraped against the rock where I had been standing, sending sparks across the stone.
The second beast came from the side.
I twisted my body and barely avoided its jaws snapping shut near my arm.
I swung my sword.
The rusty blade slammed into the beast's skull with a dull crack. It yelped and staggered backward.
But the third one was already behind me.
Something slammed into my back.
I stumbled forward, nearly losing my balance as claws scraped across the leather armor on my chest.
"Shit—!"
I rolled to the side just as teeth snapped where my neck had been.
My heart hammered violently.
'Too many.'
'Way too many.'
The beasts regrouped quickly, spreading out again.
Their eyes tracked my every movement.
"Alright," I muttered, forcing my breathing to slow. "Let's think."
'Three enemies.'
'They're fast and Aggressive.'
'But not coordinated enough to attack perfectly together.'
'If I could thin them out—'
The closest one lunged again.
This time I stepped toward it instead of away.
The beast's eyes widened for half a second.
Long enough.
My sword flashed.
[Critical Strike!]
The System message appeared the instant the blade connected.
The rusted sword punched through the creature's neck like paper.
A fountain of Blood sprayed across the stone as I sliced its Head clean off.
The beast collapsed instantly.
I blinked.
'That was—'
'Very effective.'