The hunger didn't go away.
Even after devouring the essence of three Shadow Wolves, Aryan felt an emptiness deep within his chest. It wasn't a hunger for food; it was his very soul demanding more power to fill the 'Void'.
"Status," he whispered.
A purple ripple appeared in the air.
> [Status Window]
> Level: 2 (EXP: 10/200)
> Class: Void Walker (Mythic)
> Current State: Hungry
> Skills: [Void Step], [Dimension Vision], [Gluttony - Locked]
"Only Level 2?" Aryan frowned. He realized that the standard EXP system didn't apply to him the same way. To reach Level 999, he couldn't just hunt weak dogs in alleyways. He needed to find the source of the corruption—the Dungeons.
Suddenly, his [Dimension Vision] flickered.
About two hundred meters away, inside a crumbling subway station, he saw a massive concentration of unstable purple lines. It was a Mana Leak—the sign of a Dungeon Break.
"Help! Somebody help!"
A high-pitched scream echoed from the station entrance.
Aryan hesitated. In his past life, he was the one screaming for help while others looked away. He had no obligation to be a hero.
'But... if there are monsters, there is EXP,' he thought, his eyes turning cold.
He moved. But he didn't run. He used [Void Step].
With every stride, his body flickered in and out of reality, covering meters in milliseconds. He arrived at the station entrance just in time to see a group of low-rank hunters being cornered by a Steel-Tusk Boar—a D-Rank monster known for its impenetrable hide.
The leader of the hunters, a muscular man with a cracked shield, was bleeding. "Run! It's too strong for us! We need a C-Rank party!"
The Boar roared, its tusks glowing with mana as it charged at a young girl who had tripped on the stairs.
SHIIIIING—!
The charge stopped instantly.
The hunters blinked. Standing in front of the massive boar was a young man in tattered clothes. Aryan didn't use a shield. He had simply caught the boar's glowing tusk with his bare left hand.
"W-What? He caught it?" the shield-bearer gasped.
"System Error," Aryan muttered under his breath.
He didn't just catch the tusk; he touched the 'Flaw' he saw through his Dimension Vision. He twisted his wrist, and the 'Reality' of the boar's tusk simply snapped like a dry twig.
[Skill Activated: Void Pressure]
Black lightning surged from Aryan's hand, traveling up the boar's head. The massive monster didn't even have time to scream. Its body began to fold in on itself, collapsing into a small black sphere of compressed matter.
POP.
The monster was gone. In its place was a glowing purple orb of essence.
[D-Rank Essence Detected. Devour?]
[Yes] Aryan said.
The orb flew into his chest. A wave of immense heat washed over him.
> [Level Up!]
> [Level Up!]
> Current Level: 4
> New Skill Unlocked: [Void Extraction]
Aryan stood in the silence of the subway, the terrified hunters staring at him as if he were a monster far worse than the boar. He didn't look back at them. He looked down at his hand, where a faint purple glow remained.
"Level 4. Only 995 more to go."
He stepped into the darkness of the subway tunnel, vanishing before the hunters could even ask for his name.