Dren Volkar , Guildmaster of Myrefall
The silence in his office was deeper than usual.
Dren leaned back in his chair, hands clasped loosely in front of his face, eyes fixed on the fading glow of the crystal orb. The door had barely closed behind the masked figure known only as The Ghost, and yet the weight he left behind still pressed on the room like stale thunder.
Dren Volkar was not a man easily shaken. He had earned his SS-rank by surviving hell and dragging others back out of it. He had faced beasts that cracked the sky with their howls, seen comrades torn apart by things that had no name.
But when he released that bloodlust in the hall…
Just for a moment.
Just the briefest flicker.
I felt fear.
A bead of sweat had touched his neck before his instincts even recognized what they were reacting to. That sort of primal response didn't come from bluffs or illusions.
It came from predators.
«If I hadn't known better… I'd say he was Fallen-ranked himself.»
He chuckled bitterly at the thought. Then reached into his drawer and retrieved the bandit's report again. He reread the lines, particularly the part that still gnawed at the back of his mind:
«He killed a Cursed-ranked Voidkin in under a minute. Didn't even break a sweat. Just stood there in a suit and mask and… erased it.»
Dren had wanted to scoff when he first read it. A bandit's trauma-fueled exaggeration, perhaps. But now…
«If that was a Cursed-Rank…» he muttered, «…then we're dealing with something worse than we thought.»
Cursed-Rank Voidkin were rare, one level beneath the dreaded Fallen. Only SS-ranks could face them alone, and even then, barely. And here was a man, unregistered, anonymous, and humble… casually killing one like it was routine.
What if he's an SS-rank who chose to disappear?
Or worse… what if he's something new?
Dren drummed his fingers across the desk, then finally whispered aloud:
«If this Ghost ever calls for a favor… we'll answer.»
Rhundal Ruins , Underground
Kael stood at the edge of a long-dead village, surrounded by collapsing roofs and grass-slick stone.
The air here was thick, not with mana, but with absence. No birds. No insects. Not even a breeze.
«It's like the void came to visit… and didn't leave.»
He pressed one palm to the ground, eyes fluttering shut.
A pulse of mana spread outward like sonar, scanning the landscape.
The surface was dead. No heat signatures. No energy trails. No signs of life.
But beneath?
Oh, beneath told a different story entirely.
Kael's perception pierced the earth like roots, through dirt, stone, and decay, and found something deep and wide, an unnatural clearing far underground. And movement. Dozens, maybe hundreds, of creatures skittering and shifting in narrow tunnels.
«Well, that's not suspicious at all.»
He smirked behind the mask and disappeared in a shimmer of space magic.
The underground hit him like a humid breath.
It was dark, damp, and alive with the distant sound of shifting legs. Walls pulsed faintly with glowing sacs. The floors were carved in unnatural lines, like a termite nest built by something that hated geometry.
Kael landed silently on a raised platform and immediately activated invisibility, along with sound suppression and breath masking.
«Standard dungeon-crawl starter pack. Check.»
He stepped forward, cloaked in silence, walking like a ghost among the shadows.
Around the corner, he spotted them.
Void Ants.
Three of them. Chitin-covered, long-limbed, their eyes like pools of dark oil. Their antennae twitched in rhythmic pulses as they moved in formation.
Kael crouched behind a stone pillar.
«Ant Voidkin. Low-rank. Corrupted-class.»
«Usually wild. No group tactics. No hierarchy.»
«…So why are they patrolling?»
The knowledge surfaced without effort. Memories implanted directly by the goddess herself, worldly common sense and critical data needed for survival. Kael hadn't studied. He hadn't read tomes or taken classes.
He simply knew.
«Someone's giving the ants a brain. Not good.»
He could sense it, too, a stronger presence at the center of the underground nest. Massive. Slow-moving. Pulsing with hunger.
He didn't need to engage the ants.
«Stealth route it is. No aggro today.»
He slithered past the patrol like a breeze and continued deeper.
The tunnels narrowed, then widened again, and then the stench hit him.
Rot. Blood. Pheromones. Birth fluids.
Kael's stomach turned slightly.
He stepped into a ledge that overlooked a vast chamber, and froze.
Below, in a cavern lit by dim, glowing sacs and twitching slime, he saw the nest.
And in its center,
Her.
The creature towered above the chamber floor, a grotesque fusion of human and insect. Her upper half mimicked a woman's form, barely. Slender arms with far too many joints. A head that tilted like it was half-detached. Her skin was glossy black-purple, oozing. Her face was almost pretty, until her mouth opened sideways and revealed rows of inward-folded teeth.
But that wasn't what made Kael's hands clench.
It was her abdomen.
Bulging, bloated, lined with reproductive folds. Some parts devoured half-digested humans, limbs still twitching. Others swelled as they birthed ant-like spawn, each one tumbling wet and hissing into the waiting chambers.
Kael said nothing for a moment.
Then quietly:
«…Nope.»
He deactivated his invisibility.
A shimmer ran across his body, peeling away the veil of magic and revealing the black-and-gray illusionary suit beneath. He stood tall on the ledge overlooking the nest, fully visible.
Below, chaos erupted.
The Breeder's head snapped toward him, her too-human face stretching into a snarl. Dozens of her spawn turned in perfect synchronicity.
«Yeah, I figured that'd wake you up.»
«I was going to end it peacefully since im a pacifiste now,» he muttered.«But nooo... couldn't resist being disgusting, could you?»
She screamed.
The sound didn't echo, it pierced. A psychic shriek layered in hunger and alarm.
Every creature in the nest turned.
The hive began to swarm.
He stepped off the ledge.
And dropped into the center of the swarm.
Kael didn't move.
Instead, he rolled his neck once, cracking the stiffness from his shoulders.
«Alright,» he murmured, flexing his fingers. «Magic's had its fun lately. Time to test the other side of the gift.»
He planted his feet in a martial stance.
«Let's see what it feels like… to fight with my hands.»
No magic. No spells. No illusions.
Just the raw instincts and monstrous strength inherited from the world's strongest physical hunter, who Kael now assumed was one of the three SSS-ranked beings.
«If I tear my arm off punching something… that's on you, lady.»
He raised his hands.
And charged.
The first ant-creature lunged, mandibles snapping,
Kael ducked beneath it, surged upward, and drove his elbow into its throat.
CRACK.
The thing's head split sideways. Its spine shattered. It flew backward into three others, bowling them over like kindling.
Another pounced.
Kael stepped into its lunge, spun, and delivered a spinning back-kick.
Its thorax exploded on impact. Chitin and blood splattered the walls.
«Holy hell. I could sneeze and kill something.»
He moved like a blur now. No hesitation, no fear. Every step was guided by memory he hadn't earned, combat discipline older than the Empire itself.
He ducked. Countered. Broke legs. Snapped necks.
No mana. No auras. Just muscle. Technique. Ruthless efficiency.
The hive swarmed.
He welcomed them.
«Feels weird… not using magic.»
«But I want to know what this body's capable of.»
Another wave rushed him.
He exploded forward.
The nest became a storm of movement. Kael weaved between attackers like a shadow, his fists snapping bones, his knees collapsing spines. One ant tried to flank him, he caught it mid-leap by the throat and slammed it into the ground, spine-first.
Boom.
The floor cracked beneath the impact.
Kael didn't stop.
«These instincts… these moves… I didn't learn them.»
«But they're mine now.»
A larger ant, armored like a beetle, tried to pounce.
Kael stepped into the charge and drove a punch into its chest.
His fist sank deep, like slamming through wet stone, and the thing collapsed in a wet heap.
All around him, the spawn hesitated.
Kael smirked.
«What, no tutorial boss?»
He looked up.
There she was.
The Breeder, snarling, oozing, bloated with spawn. Her birthing folds pulsed as another Void Ant was pushed out with a squelching hiss. Her clawed arms slammed into the ground as she dragged her bulk toward him.
Kael narrowed his eyes.
«Alright,» he said quietly. «Let's turn it up.»
He inhaled.
And released his aura.
The ground shook.
The air thickened around him as if the world itself resisted his presence. A low hum reverberated through the nest. His body glowed faintly with pale gold light, pure physical force condensed into killing intent.
The Void Ants froze. Not from command. From instinct.
Predator.
Kael flexed his fingers.
«Let's see what this SSS-ranked martial freak was capable of.»
Above, the Breeder hissed and reared back. Her birthing sacs pulsed faster, dropping fresh spawn even as her midsection writhed. She dragged herself forward with immense arms and flung acidic slime toward Kael,
He leapt, spinning in midair, and punched the acid.
It evaporated.
His fist tore through the slime like it was smoke.
«Physics don't matter when using aura your body is basically a living war crime.»
He hit the ground and rushed her.
The Breeder shrieked, launching more attacks. Tentacles, bile, claws, everything she had.
Kael dodged through them all.
Then he reached her.
And with a cold, focused breath,
He drove his fist directly into her gut.
The force rippled outward like an earthquake.
A shockwave tore through the cavern. Walls around them cracked. Spawn were blown back like leaves in a storm.
The Breeder screamed, she was sent flying, then she lunged again.
Kael met her halfway, boots crushing the stone floor as he pushed off.
Her claw came down, Kael didn't dodge.
He punched through it.
Her limb exploded at the joint. Black ichor sprayed the walls as the Breeder howled, stumbling backward.
Kael landed and shot forward again. This time, he vanished mid-charge,
, and reappeared beneath her jaw, driving his knee upward.
CRACK!
Her head snapped back. He followed with a spin, his heel catching her midsection in a high kick that launched her back into her nest.
She smashed through three of her own spawn, a crater forming in the fleshy wall.
Kael didn't give her time to recover.
He activated Burst Step, a martial aura technique.
The world blurred. He reappeared above her, fist cocked back and shimmering with dense, invisible force.
He struck.
BOOM.
The impact rippled through her body. Bone cracked. Flesh split. Her screams choked on ichor as she reeled, limbs flailing wildly.
She swung a tail at him, Kael caught it with one hand.
And swung her in a wide arc, slamming her massive frame into the stone walls like a sack of meat.
Spawn rushed him.
Kael turned and punched the ground.
Aura Shockwave.
The floor exploded in a wave of pure kinetic force, sending dozens of Void Ants flying. Bodies shattered against walls. The nest itself began to tremble.
«Still holding back…» he muttered.
«This body could probably kill a dragon if I sneezed.»
The Breeder tried to retreat. Her abdomen bloated with slime as she attempted to birth another swarm.
Kael vanished,
, and reappeared beside her, one hand blazing with aura.
He plunged it into her gut.
Kael didn't stop.
Another punch.
Then another.
Then a knee into her jaw that launched her twenty feet upward, crashing into the ceiling in a wet explosion of fluid and bone.
BOOM.
A geyser of black blood erupted as her entire lower half ruptured from the inside out. Her reproductive chambers exploded in chunks, spraying the nest with burning ichor.
The Breeder let out one final, horrible shriek.
Then collapsed.
Dead.
The rest of the spawn twitched. Staggered. Collapsed.
Kael stood over her corpse, chest rising slowly, aura pulsing like a drumbeat.
He looked down at his hands.
Fists soaked in void ichor. Skin unscathed.
«…Alright,» he whispered. «Physical wins today.»
He exhaled, calming the aura.
The light faded.
Silence.
Then the nest began to collapse.
Kael stood beneath the falling debris, exhaling slowly.
Still no magic.
Not even tired.
He looked at his fist, flexing it slowly.
«…I get why that guy is a legend. I hope I don't get addicted to this thrill in the future»
And then, the nest, what remained of it, fell silent.