My plan was simple.
Find a weak species. Slaughter them all.
Through this, I’d gain experience. Strengthen my body. Maybe even evolve my stats.
After enduring that agonizing encounter with the manticore, I noticed sothing.
My body didn’t just heal.
It adapted.
Every ti I was mutilated—torn apart and put back together—my body didn’t just return to its original state.
It improved.
Muscles regenerated stronger. Bones nded tougher.
It wasn’t so mystical healing—it was natural enhancent, accelerated beyond human limits.
Which ant...
There were two ways to get stronger:
1. Find a weaker species and massacre them.
2. Let a stronger enemy kill over and over until my body adapted.
Either way, I would grow. Faster. Stronger. Much, much faster.
A grin stretched across my face.
"This is going to be fun."
...
Days passed.
This godforsaken desert stretched endlessly, its dunes rising and falling like waves frozen in ti.
Yet—I found nothing.
Not a single living thing.
Even that damned manticore never returned.
I didn’t know how far I had traveled, but by my count, it had been four days.
For food, I found cactus fruits—small, strawberry-shaped, and oddly sweet. Almost like candy.
They kept alive. Water? The fruit’s juices were enough.
Whether they were poisonous or not didn’t matter.
My body was tough enough to handle it.
Everything had been going too smoothly.
And yet, the emptiness of this desert...
It gnawed at .
There was no life. No creatures to hunt.
No prey to massacre.
It pissed off.
Was my only option to hunt down that manticore after all?
If I couldn’t find prey, then I’d let a predator mutilate instead.
I was more than willing to be beaten to near-death if it ant growing strong enough to return the favor.
Rustle!
My thoughts snapped.
Sothing moved.
I froze.
The sound was faint—but I focused, scanning my surroundings.
It was beneath .
Bang!
The ground exploded.
A worm-like creature shot out, its mouth a circular nightmare of jagged teeth.
It lunged.
Instinct took over.
I kicked.
My foot slamd into its disgusting face.
The force hurled it out of the ground.
It landed with a thud, twitching violently in the sand.
That’s when I finally got a good look at it.
It was about four feet long, with a cylindrical, slimy body and rugged, dark skin. Its tail coiled like a snake, and its marble-sized black eyes were glossy and vacant.
Pathetic.
The mont it hit the ground, its body convulsed, writhing as it desperately tried to dig back underground.
Too late.
I grabbed its tail and swung it like a damn fan.
BAM!
I slamd it into the ground.
It twitched once—then went completely limp.
Mucus leaked from its eyes. Drool dribbled from its gaping maw.
Unconscious.
Weak.
I exhaled, shaking off the excitent.
So this was it? This was the kind of mob species I was going to grind?
I frowned.
"Too easy."
The disappointnt barely had ti to settle before—
AGONY.
Sothing pierced my foot.
A sharp, needle-like stab.
I jerked my leg, and another one of those worms was latched onto —smaller but identical.
Its jagged teeth burrowed into my flesh, and then—
[ Host is being injected with neurotoxic venom. ]
[ Host is currently paralyzed. ]
WHAT?!
Before I could even process it—
Thud.
I collapsed.
No struggle. No resistance.
Instantaneous paralysis.
I could still feel everything.
I could still think.
But my body?
Useless.
The mont I hit the sand—
Dozens of them burst from the ground.
Their glossy black eyes stared hungrily.
And then—
They sward .
...
The first bite sent a jolt of sharp, concentrated pain up my spine.
The second?
Agony.
The third?
Torture.
By the tenth, I couldn’t even count them anymore.
Tiny, jagged teeth tore into my flesh, ripping apart piece by piece.
It was like being stabbed by hundreds of rusty needles all at once.
It was slow.
Too slow.
If it had been instantaneous, I wouldn’t have had ti to process it.
But these creatures?
They were eating alive.
I felt every nerve rupture.
Every muscle severed.
Every drop of blood drained.
I wanted to scream.
I wanted to thrash.
But my body wouldn’t move.
I was fully aware, trapped inside a corpse that hadn’t realized it was dead yet.
They kept eating.
And eating.
And eating.
They chewed through my skin.
They burrowed into my arms.
They ripped my stomach open.
I lost count of how many tis I should have died.
But then—
Sothing changed.
At first, I barely noticed it—too lost in the pain.
But then—
A system notification flickered into my mind.
[ Chaos Embryonic Core saturation increased. ]
[ Host has gained resistance to neurotoxic venom. ]
[ Paralysis removed. ]
My body twitched.
Oh.
Oh, you fucked up now.
A slow, dark grin spread across my face.
For the first ti in what felt like an eternity—
I moved.
And then?
I killed.
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