The air in the Abyssal Pit was thick. Not just with the stench of rot and decay, but with something deeper, something ancient and primal. It was a feral presence that clung to Kai's skin, crawled into his lungs, and whispered unseen threats with every ragged breath he took. The darkness itself felt alive, pressing in on him.
But Kai didn't flinch. He stood over the pile of ash where the Hollow Fang had disintegrated, staring at the faint blue glow of his system screen. His hands trembled, not from fear, but from the lingering rush of raw power. The energy he had just tasted was unnatural, potent. It felt like stealing from the gods themselves.
[Level: 2]
[Core Absorbed: 1]
[Beast Trait: Hollow Instinct – Enhances reaction time when near beasts.]
[Skill: Rending Claw (Tier F) – Unarmed strike enhanced with beast essence.]
His fingers twitched. The skill still hummed inside his muscles, a phantom sensation, like his body remembered the monstrous strength it had briefly borrowed. That claw swipe, the one that tore through the beast's flesh, that wasn't him.
That was the beast.
No, he corrected himself, a spark of fierce possessiveness igniting within him. That was his now.
The thought made his pulse quicken, a drumbeat of exhilaration. He turned, his one good eye scanning the vast, oppressive space of the pit. Rock ledges stacked like jagged, broken teeth up the impossibly high walls. The distant ceiling above had long since closed, sealed tight by the clan's ritualistic glyphs—no light came in now. Just dim, eerie bioluminescence glowing from patches of fungi clinging to the damp stone and from thin cracks in the rock face, casting long, shifting shadows.
He limped forward, dragging his bruised leg behind him, each step a fresh jolt of pain. He needed to move. Fast. He'd killed once. That was good. It proved something.
But something told him this pit didn't stay quiet for long. It was a place of constant struggle, a realm where only the strong survived.
· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·
He traveled through twisted, narrow paths of broken stone, past grim collections of corpses—some human, some beast. Most were already decayed to the bone, bleached white and brittle, but some were fresher, their flesh still clinging to skeletal frames. These were the more recent victims, clearly torn apart, devoured by whatever else lurked in the depths. The air grew heavier here, thick with the smell of death and decay.
He stopped near a collapsed wagon, its wooden frame splintered and rotting. A tattered cloak, stained dark, fluttered from the side, pinned beneath a blood-stained crate. His gaze sharpened. He pushed aside the debris, his fingers brushing against rough wood.
Inside the wagon, he found what he needed: a rusted dagger. Its blade was pitted and cracked at the tip, far from ideal. But the hilt was wrapped tightly in leather, and it held firm in his grasp.
He gripped it, the cold metal feeling strangely comforting in his palm, a tangible anchor in this nightmare. He felt slightly less naked, slightly less vulnerable.
Then he heard them.
Snarls. Two at once. Close. The sound echoed off the cavern walls, making it hard to pinpoint their exact location.
He ducked behind a massive stone pillar, its rough surface cold against his cheek, eyes narrowed, straining to see through the gloom.
From the shadows, two beasts emerged—low to the ground, agile, and moving in eerie sync. Their forms were indistinct at first, then resolved into lean, lupine shapes.
[Name: Splitfang Jackals (x2)]
[Rank: F-Tier]
[Status: Hunting]
[Warning: Alone, they are weak. Together, they coordinate attacks.]
Kai crouched low, exhaling slowly, trying to control the erratic beat of his heart.
His body still ached. His ribs burned with every shallow breath, a constant reminder of his injuries. If they struck together, if they coordinated their assault, he was dead. He knew his limits.
But the system pulsed again, a faint blue glow from his mental interface.
[Skill Suggestion: Rending Claw – Delay one. Finish second.]
He didn't hesitate. The suggestion resonated with the raw, predatory instinct stirring within him. He trusted it.
As the jackals approached, their slinking forms barely visible, he picked up a jagged bone shard from the ground. With a sudden, forceful motion, he tossed it toward the side wall, letting it clatter loudly against the stone.
Clack.
The beasts' heads snapped toward the sound, their attention momentarily diverted.
He charged.
The first one noticed too late—he was already airborne, a blur of motion. Kai slammed his foot into its flank, a sudden, powerful kick fueled by desperation and a newfound, almost feral strength. The impact sent a jolt up his leg, but the jackal yelped, stumbling sideways, its attack disrupted. As the second jackal lunged for his throat, its fangs gleaming in the faint light, he dropped flat to the ground, rolled cleanly under its snapping jaws, and jammed the rusted dagger upward with all his remaining force.
A scream, high-pitched and animalistic, tore through the pit.
Blood, hot and viscous, splattered across his face and hands.
The jackal fell, twitching, its lifeblood pooling around it.
The other turned, already regaining its footing, its eyes now fixed on him, a primal rage burning within them.
Kai didn't give it the chance to retaliate. He wasn't going to play fair.
[Skill: Rending Claw – Activated.]
He swiped with his left hand—and his fingers glowed faintly, outlined with spectral beast energy, a shimmering blue aura. The strike, imbued with the absorbed essence of the Hollow Fang, tore across the jackal's neck in a single, brutal motion. It stumbled, a gurgle escaping its throat, then dropped. Lifeless.
He breathed hard, his chest heaving, the stench of blood filling his nostrils.
Then the messages came, one after another, filling his vision.
[Core Absorbed: 2]
[Level: 2 -> 3]
[Skill Unlocked: Keen Hearing (Passive)]
[Inventory Gained: Minor Beast Bone (x2), Splitfang Tooth (x1)]
Kai sank to his knees, utterly exhausted but alive.
His heartbeat thundered, a triumphant rhythm in the cavern. His vision blurred slightly, but it was from the lingering rush of power, not pain.
Level 3.
That was already stronger than half the clan's outer disciples at his age, the very ones who had scorned him.
And he had done it without a bonded beast. Without a single, living companion to aid him.
No. He corrected himself again, a dark, growing certainty settling in his soul.
He was doing something different. Something darker, more dangerous. Something entirely his own.
· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·
A few hours later, after cleaning the blood from himself as best he could with a damp stone, Kai found a shallow cave nestled into the side of a ridge. It was small, barely more than an overhang, but inside, it was dry, shielded from the perpetual wind that swept through the deeper parts of the pit, and smelled like dust instead of death. A small victory.
He collapsed there, arms crossed over his chest, utterly spent, but watching the entrance with narrowed, wary eyes. He wasn't truly resting; he was conserving energy, remaining alert.
The system pulsed again, its blue light a familiar presence in the darkness.
[Beast Codex: Unlocked.]
[Beasts Logged: 3/10,000]
[Codex Rank: Dormant]
[Codex Evolution Unlocked at 100 Beasts.]
[Devourer Trait Tree Unlocked.]
[Choose a Trait Path:
- Predatory Instinct (Boosts agility and kill efficiency)
- Alpha Core (Boosts presence and grants beast control potential)
- Beastblood Surge (Accelerates recovery and physical adaptation)]
Kai stared at the options, his mind surprisingly clear despite his exhaustion. He had no mentor to guide him, no tamer's manual to consult. No bloodline to rely on, only the one that had cast him out. And yet here he was, in the deepest, most forgotten place, offered choices no one else in the world would ever see.
Predatory Instinct seemed like the safe bet—it would boost his immediate survival chances, allow him to live longer, fight faster, kill more efficiently. A practical choice for a death trap.
But Alpha Core…
He remembered how the second jackal hesitated for just a second after he killed the first, a flicker of uncertainty in its feral eyes. He remembered the brief, strange sensation of dominance he felt when he grabbed the Hollow Fang. Control potential.
Bondless tamers couldn't control beasts. It was an unbreakable law of their world. Beasts bonded with a tamer, or they didn't. There was no in-between, no middle ground.
Unless…
He touched the screen, his finger hovering over the Alpha Core option. A quiet, dangerous ambition began to stir.
[Trait Selected: Alpha Core]
[New Passive Unlocked: Beast Pressure – Low-rank beasts hesitate before attacking you.]
A faint hum resonated through his body as the trait activated, a subtle shift in his very essence. He felt a newfound authority, a quiet power that radiated from him.
· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·
That night, Kai didn't sleep much. The new trait kept him alert, and the constant hum of the system was a low thrum beneath his consciousness. He sharpened the rusted dagger against a rough rock, the scraping sound echoing softly in the cave. He practiced movement drills in the limited space, stretching his sore muscles, listening intently to every creak and rustle from the cavern outside. He was no longer just trying to survive. He was testing himself, pushing his new limits, learning what he had become.
· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·
The next morning—or whatever passed for morning in the eternal twilight of the Abyssal Pit—he heard a noise. Not the growling of beasts, not the scuttling sounds of unknown creatures, but something far more unsettling.
Voices.
Faint. Distant. But undeniably human.
He crawled to the edge of his shallow cave, peering down toward the lower path that snaked through the pit.
Three figures walked in a loose group, their torches flickering, casting dancing shadows around them. They moved with the familiar arrogance of those who believed themselves untouchable.
Prisoners? Or… sentencers, perhaps, checking on their handiwork?
Then he saw their robes. Clan colors. The distinctive gold trim of Draven clan internal disciples, pristine even in the gloom. They were from his clan. They were looking for him.
Kai's eyes sharpened, a cold glint appearing in his one good eye.
He listened carefully, his enhanced hearing picking up snippets of their conversation.
"…The elders say a Hollow Fang was killed here. But there's no body," one said, his voice skeptical.
"Impossible. No one survives a Hollow Fang alone, especially an F-rank like that brat."
"Then maybe the creature died on its own, a natural death."
The leader, a young man with sharp, red eyes and a curved blade at his hip, sniffed the air, his nose wrinkling. "No. Someone killed it. Someone… with a system."
Kai pulled back from the ledge, his heart a cold knot in his chest. So they were looking for him already. Or, more accurately, they were looking for what he had become, the anomaly.
[Warning: System Signature Detected by Outer World.]
[Stealth Module Locked – Upgrade Required.]
He clenched his fists, a surge of frustrated power. He wasn't strong enough to face them—not yet. Not openly. He was still injured, still learning.
But he would be.
Soon.
One of the figures paused, glancing around nervously. "Did you hear that?"
The red-eyed leader shook his head, dismissive. "Nothing worth worrying about. If there's a survivor, they'll die soon enough. This pit claims everyone eventually."
· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·
Back in the shadows of his cave, Kai grinned to himself, a raw, predatory smile that felt alien on his face. The bitterness of betrayal still lingered, but it was now laced with a potent, exhilarating sense of purpose.
"Come back in a few weeks," he muttered, his voice a low, dangerous whisper. "I'll show you what dying looks like."