⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙[Absorbing negative emotion 'Murderous Intent.'] [Absorbing negative emotion 'Rage.']
I was sucking up experience points like a sponge,
but right now, I couldn't care less about that.
"...Kuhk!"
I groaned in agony as if my lungs were being crushed, rolling on the ground.
The terror of death was consuming my entire body.
I can't win.
Against that damned bastard, there's not even a 10% chance of victory head-on.
My rationality screamed nonstop in my head.
Just moments ago, compared to the sloppy Tundra, this guy was on another level entirely.
The barbarian before my eyes, the man called Borin, was a true warrior unlike that one.
The experience and instincts honed through countless battlefields proved with his body that amateurish ambushes wouldn't work.
"A mongrel who can't even fight fair. With that pathetic level of power..."
To him, a seasoned barbarian who had seen it all, I was writhing in pain on the ground—a state where ending my life would be effortless—but the guy didn't take my neck hastily.
Instead, he slowly closed the distance, like a predator with prey right in front of it.
Probably intending to inflict maximum pain.
'Damn bastard.'
Cough!
I spat blood and glared at him through my blurry vision.
Having gauged my level with a single blow, his face had grown utterly calm.
The leisure of a predator certain of victory.
I could feel that arrogance radiating off him.
'Think... I have to think!'
That arrogance. The complacency of a strongman who saw himself as the winner—that was my one chance.
Flat on the ground, I desperately racked my brains.
'A head-on fight is suicide.'
Suppressing the coughs bursting from my throat, I barely managed to haul myself up.
My vision spun from the solar plexus strike, but I couldn't afford to lose focus.
'I can't fight. I have to run. No, just running won't cut it.'
In this forest, against that monster—and in my battered state—simply fleeing was impossible.
I'd get caught and killed eventually.
So then.
I had to distract him somehow and create distance.
"One life like yours isn't enough to pay for a warrior of the tribe... but no helping it."
Damn arrogant barbarian prick, spouting whatever he pleased.
Borin looked down with contempt, casually slinging his battle axe over his shoulder as he slowly advanced.
It was right then.
"Eat this, you bastard!"
I squeezed out my remaining mana, hurling the broken wooden sword at his face.
And at the same time, threw myself toward the shadow at his feet.
Swoosh!
⚡ SKILL ACTIVATED ⚡[Shadow Step]
"You think your petty tricks will work on me?!"
I hadn't expected him to fall for it easily anyway.
But my hope that it would buy me even a moment was shattered mercilessly. He dodged the flying wooden sword with just a tilt of his head.
And without even glancing toward the shadow I'd lunged into, he bellowed.
His prediction was spot on.
I hadn't leaped to the shadow behind his back.
But to the shadow of a tree deep in the forest, as far away as possible.
Swoosh.
"Turns out you're not a mongrel—you're a rat!"
Before my body could fully emerge from the shadow, a roar shook the earth, followed by footsteps thundering after me.
My heart plummeted.
I bolted without looking back.
How the hell was he tracking me so easily in this dark forest?
No sooner had I used my Authority to escape than he was hot on my trail again, giving me no chance to catch my breath.
Branches whipped my face, and I stumbled over sharp rocks multiple times.
My lungs burned like fire, my legs screamed, but I couldn't stop.
The heavy footsteps behind me were closing in relentlessly, like the footsteps of death itself.
'Fuck. What do I do?'
After several Shadow Steps to flee,
I could feel my already meager mana hitting rock bottom.
'At this rate, he'll catch me!'
How long had I run?
Just as my vision blurred and sensation left my legs.
I knew mere running wasn't the answer.
But to survive, I gritted my teeth and squeezed out my last scrap of mana.
The moment I tried for one more Shadow Step to widen the gap.
Thud!
"Huh?"
The foot I'd planted on the ground sliced through empty air.
A trap, cunningly hidden under years of fallen leaves and dirt.
My body lost balance, plummeting into endless darkness below.
The fall robbed me of consciousness until my back slammed into hard ground.
A wave of excruciating pain swept through me, briefly blanking my mind.
"Kuh...hk!"
It hurt.
Not just hurt—like I was going to die right then and there.
If not for the Warrior's Ring reinforcing my body, I might've bled out from massive hemorrhaging.
"...Hahaha! Nice view, rat!"
From above, at a fair distance, came Borin's mocking voice.
He must've realized I'd fallen into the pit.
'This bastard?'
I spat bloody saliva to the side and propped myself up with my least injured arm.
Fortunately, no broken bones, but now there was truly nowhere to run.
But then.
'This place...'
Looking around, I doubted my eyes.
This didn't look like a mere trap or cave.
Bathed in moonlight filtering through the hole above, the space appeared to be an artificially carved stone chamber.
The walls were densely inscribed with unreadable ancient script,
and the air was thick with the musty scent of ages past.
And in the center of the chamber.
Stood a massive stone sarcophagus.
"What the hell is this...?"
Before I could even question it.
Thud. Thud.
From above came his ragged breathing, interspersed with intermittent footsteps as he searched for a way down.
No time.
Instinctively, I staggered toward the sarcophagus.
It made no sense.
When I should've been brainstorming other options, digging up a grave?
Pure madness.
Yet something—a subconscious whisper inside me—insisted that this sarcophagus held the sole answer to my desperate plight.
Faced with death nipping at my heels,
reason shut down, and animalistic survival instinct took over.
"Ngh... Open, damn it!"
I threw all my strength into shoving the lid.
With my injuries, the rock-like lid shouldn't budge,
but eerily, it began sliding with a chilling scrape—grrrrind.
As if its long-slumbering occupant was granting entry to the first visitor.
Grrrriiind.
How much time passed?
When the gap was just wide enough for one person,
I panted heavily and peered inside.
And swallowed hard.
No mummy or skeleton inside.
A man lay there, face serene as if he'd just fallen asleep.
Untouched by decay despite eons, retaining his full living majesty.
Jet-black hair, firmly shut lips. Countless scars etched across his body.
At a glance, he was no ordinary man in life—clearly an extraordinary warrior.
And my gaze locked onto his left index finger, where a single ring rested.
A black obsidian ring, carved from the night sky itself.
A far more potent, ominous aura emanated from it than from the Warrior's Ring.
'That's it.'
My instincts screamed.
That ring was the key to turning this around.
As I unconsciously reached for it from inside the sarcophagus, reason flickered back, making me hesitate.
Disturbing the dead was the ultimate taboo.
"Hah."
'Who the hell am I worrying about?'
A hollow laugh escaped me.
My own life hung by a thread; no room to fret over the deceased.
Resolved, I extended my hand and carefully slipped the ring off the corpse's cold finger.
The instant the ring left the body.
Whoosh.
The corpse, which had endured eternal ages, crumbled to dust in a blink.
I watched for a moment, then slowly slid the ring onto my right index finger.
Right then.
Kwaaaaa—!
"K...Aaaagh!"
Agony like lightning piercing my brain.
Electricity from my finger rampaged, scorching every nerve in my body.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙[Commencing qualification review.] [Analyzing user's soul.]
My veins swelled as if bursting, bones ground out of joint and reset echoing through my body.
Every muscle fiber tore and reformed stronger, the sensation repeating endlessly.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙[Qualification review complete.] [Analysis complete. Synchronizing user's soul with the legacy.] [Qualification as new 'King' confirmed.] [Artifact 'Black King's Ring' now belongs to the user.] [All stats explosively readjusted.] [Authority of Shadows evolves to 'Black Authority.']
Time stretched to eternity in an instant, and I screamed, rolling on the floor.
Every movement tore new wounds across my body, but I felt nothing.
No—rather, I had to cling to sanity through the pain.
Or I'd go mad right then.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙[User's body accepts the power of the 'Black King.']⚔ STATUS ⚔⚡ Strength: D → A💨 Agility: D → A✨ Magic Power: D → A💪 Stamina: D → A🍀 Luck: D → A🛡️ Endurance: D → A
How much time had passed?
Felt like hours, no, days.
But hearing his approaching sounds so clearly in my ears, probably less than a minute.
"..."
The hellish pain vanished like a lie.
Not vanished, more like my body had fully adapted to the power.
The violent energy that tore and rebuilt me now flowed gently like a river through my veins.
'How do I even explain this...'
What to call my current state?
I felt like I could beat anyone, no matter who.
As I gazed at my outstretched hands with a surge of emotion.
Rumble.
Something heavy was forcing open the sarcophagus lid.
No need to look—that barbarian was trying to enter the chamber.
"No more places to run. Since you're a rat, I'll give you a rat's end."
I slowly, very slowly, raised my upper body.
The wounds and pain from the fall were gone without a trace.
Instead, unimaginable vitality and power coursed through me.
"Oh, you finally here?"