Episode 3 — Resurrection Veins
Blood slicked the streets.
Vert stood calm in the wreckage, hoodie dripping, blue veins glowing faintly under his pale skin. Monsters lay in heaps of shredded meat. Bounty hunters twitched on the ground, groaning through broken ribs and shattered spines.
[Level: 10]
[Defense Increased.]
[Body Reinforcement Active.]
He rolled his shoulders, smirk tugging his lips. "Ten levels already. That was almost… too easy."
But the dungeon wasn't done.
The gate at the center of the block pulsed violently, jagged black crystal spreading wider across the pavement. The air grew heavier, stinking of sulfur and iron. The ground split open with a shriek.
Something massive crawled out.
A hulking figure, four meters tall, its skin a mesh of raw muscle and bone, blue fire dripping from a gaping maw where its stomach should've been. Its eyes burned like furnaces, locking on Vert with primal hunger.
A dungeon boss.
Vert grinned. "Finally."
⸻
The creature charged. Pavement cracked beneath each thunderous step. Vert dodged, barely, the wind of its claws slicing past his face like knives. He countered with a fist to its ribs—his bones cracked from the impact.
The beast didn't even flinch.
Vert hissed, clutching his hand. So my body's still not there yet. Good.
The monster swung again. Vert blocked with his forearms. The impact launched him through a storefront, glass shattering, shelves collapsing.
[Warning: Severe Damage Detected.]
He coughed blood, laughing through crimson teeth. His veins glowed brighter. "Not bad."
The boss roared, tearing through the shop to finish him. Hunters scattered, some screaming, some raising weapons, all too afraid to intervene.
Vert launched himself forward, close combat only. His fists hammered into the beast's flesh, every strike spraying gore but barely slowing it down. The creature seized him mid-strike and slammed him into the pavement hard enough to crater the street.
Bones shattered. His body twitched. Blood poured freely.
The boss raised a claw, massive, ready to rip him apart.
For the first time since awakening, Vert realized: I might actually die.
The claw fell.
And darkness swallowed him whole.
⸻
Silence.
Vert's body lay broken. The hunters whispered.
"He's dead…"
"Good. Whatever he was—it's over."
But then—
The veins.
Blue light spread across his corpse like wildfire, igniting every vessel under his skin. His chest convulsed, eyes snapping open—glowing, burning, alive.
[Death Registered.]
[Unique Trait Activated.]
[Resurrection Initiated.]
His body rebuilt itself from the inside out, bones snapping back into place, flesh knitting together, muscles hardening with unnatural speed. His fangs grew sharper, his veins brighter, crawling across his face like neon lightning.
When he stood, the hunters froze in horror.
The man who'd died was gone.
In his place was something worse.
Vert smirked, blood still dripping from his lips. His voice was calm, cruel, electric.
"Round two."
⸻
The boss roared and lunged again. Vert didn't dodge. This time, he caught the monster's claw with both hands. His defense didn't just block—it deflected, redirecting the force. The creature stumbled, balance broken.
Vert's knee shattered its jaw in a burst of bone and gore.
[Level Up: 11]
He laughed, savage and ecstatic. The fight became a dance of brutality—close, bloody, unrelenting. Vert tore chunks from the monster with his bare hands, ripping its throat open, smashing its ribs, gouging out one burning eye with a brutal twist of his thumb.
The boss howled. Vert only smiled wider.
Finally, with a last surge, he leapt onto its chest, fangs sinking deep into the exposed core glowing inside its ribcage. He ripped it out, devouring the blue-fire heart in a spray of light and blood.
The monster collapsed, shaking the entire street.
[Level Up: 12]
[Boss Defeated.]
[Permanent Stat Increase Applied.]
Vert stood atop the corpse, veins blazing like neon rivers, his smirk dripping arrogance.
The hunters could only stare, trembling.
One whispered, "That… that wasn't a vampire."
Vert turned to them, licking blood from his lips. His expression was cold, distant, disrespectful.
"Correct. Vampires are pathetic." He spread his arms, mocking, blue veins glowing down to his fingertips. "I'm something infinite."
The hunters backed away.
Vert stepped down from the corpse, calm as ever. His hoodie clung to his skin, torn and soaked in gore, but his stride was steady, elegant in its savagery.
This world spawned humans every second. Monsters every hour. Dungeons every day.
And every death, every drop of blood, every kill… made him stronger.
The cycle was endless.
And Vert had all the time in eternity.
⸻
On the rooftop above, the masked observers watched again, silent.
The scope's lens glowed as it tracked Vert's glowing veins, his resurrected body standing in the ruins of the street.
Finally, one spoke.
"Update the file. Codename: Resurrected One. Threat level: Beyond classification."
Their voice trembled for the first time.
"If he keeps leveling, nothing will stop him."
Vert's laughter carried into the night, cold and merciless, like the echo of infinity.
[To Be Continued…]