Bang!
The gunshot split the air, and the bullet tore through the skull of the abomination, punching cleanly out the other side. The creature crumpled without ceremony, its body hitting the ground with a wet thud as blood and pulverized brain matter splattered across the dirt.
A thin wisp of smoke curled from the barrel of the revolver.
"Tch. These bastards just keep coming… Where the hell are they even coming from?"
Grumbling under his breath, Song surveyed the growing mound of fiend corpses littering the ground around him.
As he ventured deeper into the forest, the number of fiends increased exponentially. They came in twisted forms; malformed bodies of fur, scales, and bone, all crawling out from the shadows like a plague of nightmares. Some of them he had even forgotten their names and the air reeked of decay, the stench thick enough to make breathing difficult.
Song adjusted his stance and raised the revolver.
Bang! Bang!
Two more shots echoed through the darkness.
One fiend fell, half its head missing, while another staggered backward before collapsing with a guttural shriek.
The forest floor was a graveyard with bodies piled over one another, their black blood seeping into the soil like ink. The moonlight filtering through the canopy reflected faintly off the ichor, giving the ground an almost oily shimmer.
Unbidden, he reloaded the revolver and shook out the empty shells.
Click—clack!
A short breath escaped his lips. His arms ached from recoil, and his mind felt heavy from the endless cycle of violence.
"...It's like they're drawn to me. Or maybe, it's because of something else."
A rustle cut through his thoughts.
Song spun toward the sound and trained the revolver instinctively. The shadows shifted between the trees like something was approaching.
His vision narrowed.
A pair of crimson eyes gleamed from the darkness, too high up to belong to any kobold or lesser fiend. The creature stepped into view, its humanoid frame towering over the rest, possessing fierce muscles reminiscent of steel bars that rippled under its obsidian hide.
A Greater Fiend.
Song clicked his tongue. "...Tch. Figured as much."
The monster bared its jagged teeth, letting out a guttural growl that shook the leaves loose from the branches.
This one wasn't going to die from a few bullets.
Holstering the revolver, Song wasted no time. He thrust his hand forward and activated his Mythic Ability.
In the next instant, an invisible pressure burst outward from his palm and travelled in a straight line, distorting the air as it went. The creature's head caved in violently, as though erased from existence. Bone, flesh, and spirit alike were compressed into nothingness.
The fiend staggered for a moment and swayed its body here and there without purpose, before collapsing lifelessly to the ground.
[You have slain a Greater Fiend: Gluttonous Jackel.]
The familiar voice announced and faded as quickly as it came.
Song let out an exhausted breath and slowly lowered his hand. The acrid scent of blood and burnt ether clung to the wind, and the towering creature now lay crushed and silent.
He stared at it for a moment, then muttered under his breath,
"Looks like even the big ones can't withstand that."
Still, the weight of exhaustion pressed down on him. The fight had been short, but the strain of using [Flatten] was beginning to show. A dull throbbing had adopted within his temple like someone had stabbed a metal rod into his skull or perhaps it was phantom pain.
It seemed like his ability wasn't without setbacks, after all.
"Better wrap this up before more show up."
He reached for his knife once more and stepped toward the fallen Greater Fiend.
Some time passed before Song finished extracting all the shards from the fallen monsters. He absorbed them one by one, feeling the familiar warmth of spiritual energy flow into him. Of course, he made sure to leave a few shards untouched, setting them aside with a calculating glance, planning to hand them over to the Association in exchange for some much-needed money.
[You have absorbed a Spirit Shard.]
[You have absorbed a Spirit Shard.]
[You have absorbed a Spirit Shard.]
[You have absorbed a Spirit Shard.]
[You have...]
Finished, he opened his eyes and summoned the system interface to check his current progress.
| Name: Nightingale Vale
| Soul Slate: Black
| Soul Fragments: [59/1000]
"Wow. That sure is a lot."
Song let out a whistle and at the same time, did some quick mental calculations. Each shard he'd collected from the lesser fiends, the kobolds and other minor abominations, had only yielded a single Soul Fragment each. That explained why the pile from the earlier wave had barely nudged his total upward.
The Greater Fiend, however, had been different. The humanoid monstrosity had contained two Spirit Shards and gave him two Soul Fragments when absorbed. That's why his Soul Slate now displayed a total of fifty-nine fragments, a marked jump compared to what he'd earned from the weaker creatures.
"One shard from a lesser fiend, two from a greater and a falllen would probably give three ether shards. Makes sense why the numbers were so low before."
Chaos Creatures were ranked according to the floors they inhabited within the Black Spire. The early levels — Floors 1 through 10 — were dominated by Fiends, while from the 11th to the 30th Floor, Beasts and Demons began to appear. Even so, not all monsters of the same rank were created equal, which was why the Awakened Association had implemented special parameters to distinguish monsters of the same rank:
«Lesser,» «Greater,» and «Fallen.»
It was a simple enough system and straightforward, but it highlighted the grind he faced. Taking down dozens of minor fiends barely moved the needle, whereas a single Greater Fiend could significantly accelerate his progress.
Unfortunately, Greater Fiends were rare, and Fallen Fiends were even more elusive.
Fallen Fiends were abominations that demanded the cooperation of two or more people to defeat. In essence, they served as the boss battles or field bosses of the early floors.
Song grimaced.
"What rotten luck. Is it possible to solo those monsters?"
Likely not. In the end, he would have to team up with other people sooner or later. If he liked his kids, that is.
With a resigned sigh, he gathered the Spirit Shards he had set aside and tucked them carefully into his backpack. By a rough count, there were probably around a hundred shards in total.
Not bad at all for a rookie! Surely something like this could be called a decent haul. Still, he grimaced at the thought of having spent hours hunting countless little terrors just to amass them.
"Ugh… that was exhausting. In any case, with this much, I should be able to leave without any issues."
Song didn't give a thought to searching for the gateway to the 2nd Floor.
He simply didn't have the resources to venture any further. His ammunition was all but gone: the Glock 19 had long since run dry, and his revolver held only two or three rounds at most.
Of course, Fallen Glory didn't require ammunition since it was a sword but Nightingale wasn't a swordsman. He was an archer, or more precisely, a specialized type of archer known as a Gunslinger.
Exploring armed with only a sword would put him at a needless disadvantage. At best, the blade served as a secondary weapon, while his true primary weapons remained his two trusty and irreplaceable darlings♪
…Speaking of his darlings, one of those damned Lesser Fiends had actually tried to take a bite out of them! However, all it got for its trouble was a smoking hot bullet into its mouth!
"To hell with this place!"
He spat on the ground with contempt. Following that, Lu Song ground his back teeth and turned around, heading back the way he came.