Location: Outer Ring of the Bone Crypt
Core Stability: 13%
Status: Armed (Claws)
Hunger: Dormant → Active
The rat was dead. Still.
Its soul had long fled into me, dissolving in threads of experience and bone memory. The corpse twitched once, involuntarily, before falling into full silence. I stood over it, fingers twitching, almost expecting it to move again.
It didn’t.
【Essence Absorbed】
【Stored in Bone Bank】
【Minor Bone Reinforcement (Phalanges, Tarsals) – Complete】
A flicker of power shimmered inside my ribcage. No fire, no warmth—just presence. A confirmation that I had grown, even if only by fragments.
Yet...
That hunger returned.
It wasn’t a craving. Not a want.
It was a directive.
A system-pulse. A message burned into marrow.
“Feed. Grow. Evolve.”
I paused. Closed what passed for eyes. Reached out—not with senses, but with the skill I didn’t earn, but stole.
【Echolocation Lv.1 – Active】
– Mapping shallow biological movement
– Generating auditory pulse…
The world rippled.
Not sight. Not sound.
Just... structure.
A flash of wireframe shadows. The geometry of my hunting ground. Narrow walls. Splintered bones. Burrows chewed into stone. And movement—skittering forms, small and fast, clustered in a collapsed corner up ahead.
Crypt Rats.
Three. Maybe four. Nesting. Alert.
My jaw flexed on instinct. The laughter from before? Gone.
Now there was only calculation.
I stalked forward, careful where I stepped. The air was tighter here. The crypt narrowed—walls leaning in like they were listening. Glyphs pulsed weakly underfoot. Cracks in the stone revealed slithers of void, of time left behind.
“Prey lives here.”
Bones cracked beneath my steps, but I adjusted.
Shorter stride. Knees bent. Weight shifted into my hips.
Not human movement. Not animal.
Predator movement.
I reached the end of the hall. The nest.
Tiny shapes moved just beyond the broken pillar. Shadows, whispering squeaks, twitching tails. The air thickened with the promise of violence.
My fingers curled.
The system chimed.
【Targets Detected: Crypt Rats x4】
– Estimated Level: 2–3
– Threat: Low
– Essence: Viable
【Predatory Instinct Engaged】
There was no rage in me.
No bloodlust.
Only design.
The Crypt gave me this form. The System gave me this hunger.
And I?
I would give them death.
The rats didn’t see me.
Not at first.
They were clustered around something—a cracked ribcage, probably one of their own. Chewing. Always chewing.
I crept closer.
【Echolocation Lv.1 – Passive Ping】
Target proximity: 2.3 meters.
Weak point: spinal ridge – vertebrae C3-C5.
Recommended Strike: Oblique Snap / Overhead Pounce
System cold. Precise.
So was I.
I launched.
Not a roar. Not a sprint.
A controlled burst—bones flexing at maximum angle, calcified claws stretched and coiled.
One rat turned. Too slow.
I was already there.
Claws hooked under its hind legs—lifted. Body twisted mid-air. I rotated with it, using its momentum against it.
Snap.
Its spine cracked like a brittle branch beneath my weight.
A short, sharp squeal—then stillness.
The others scattered.
I let them go.
One was enough.
I stared at the broken thing beneath me.
It twitched.
Not from life—but from resistance.
The soul inside it wasn’t ready.
“Neither was I.”
【Consume Essence? – Confirm Y/N】
→ [Y]
I didn’t devour it with teeth.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
I devoured it with will.
The Crypt Rat’s body convulsed as something black and red—like molten thread—slithered from its core into mine.
It didn’t float.
It clawed.
The essence slammed into my ribcage like a scream wrapped in fire.
My entire structure shook. Bones flexed. Screamed.
But not in sound.
In memory.
“It screamed into my core.
Not with sound—
But with its life.”
I saw flashes. The rat’s last hunt.
The smell of me before it knew what I was.
The hunger. The panic.
The terror when it realized it was too late.
And then—
Silence.
【Essence Absorbed – Crypt Rat (Lv. 3)】
Skill Fragment: Soul Chew (Unlocked – Lv.1)
Trait Reinforced: Grip Strength +3%
Bone Density: +1
A pulse echoed through me.
Low. Final. Absolute.
“This is evolution.
Not just through death—
Through memory.”
I rose slowly.
The rat’s body lay collapsed.
It looked smaller now.
Like something half-born, half-buried.
I had taken more than its life.
I had taken its shape. Its fear. Its failure.
And turned it into mine.
The system pulsed harder than before.
No whisper. No glitch.
A chime—clean, clear, final.
【Skill Acquired: Soul Chew Lv.1】
Description: Enables consumption of low-intelligence soul fragments. Converts residual cognition into usable Core Energy.
Warning: Overuse may cause personality degradation.
Side effects: Emotional numbing, memory bleed, identity erosion.
Passive Trait: Core Efficiency +12%
I stood in the aftermath of the kill, the body limp beneath me, and tried to ignore what those words meant.
Personality degradation.
Identity erosion.
Fancy terms. System-speak. Clinical.
But I wasn’t stupid.
I knew what it meant.
Every time I took a soul, I wasn’t just feeding.
I was swapping parts out.
The hunger in my ribcage settled—but only for a moment.
Like a thirst sated just enough to remember it would never truly leave.
And I could feel the change in my movement.
Sharper steps. Faster bone rotation.
Instincts that didn’t come from me.
I turned my head—fluidly. Too fluidly.
“That wasn’t how I used to move.”
【Core Note: Skill now integrated into Bone Bank】
– Soul Chew (Lv.1)
– Essence Capacity Expanded
– Core Drain Efficiency: 84%
Total Absorbed Fragments: 3
Integrity Risk: Stable (Current Threshold: 5)
I didn’t like that number.
Thresholds are just walls.
And I’d broken every wall I’d ever met.
“What happens at six? Or ten?
When I’m more consumed than consumer?”
The thought was cold.
I looked down at the remains of the Crypt Rat. Still twitching. Not alive, but echoing. Like something residual was still trying to reform.
I stepped on it.
It didn’t move again.
A faint flicker—almost humor—rose inside me.
“Soul Chew...”
The name didn’t help.
It sounded like a snack brand for sadistic necromancers.
But there was no denying its power.
The efficiency alone made me feel like a different creature.
Faster. Hungrier. Sharper.
I tapped my fingertips against the wall. The bone echoed against the stone in rhythm—like the pulse of something just beginning to remember its own name.
“Power always comes with a price.”
I knew that even before I died.
I just never expected to pay for it twice.
But the decision had already been made.
Not by the system.
Not by the bones.
By me.
I would take power.
I would chew what needed chewing.
And if I lost something along the way…
I’d kill enough to earn it back.
The hunger dulled to a hum.
Not gone.
Just… satisfied enough to let thought creep back in.
I stood still. Completely still. Waiting. Listening to the silence of the crypt like it might whisper something else. But it didn’t.
Instead—something inside me moved.
【New Threshold Reached: Essence Mass Indexed】
Unlocking...
【Evolution Interface – Preliminary Access Granted】
The world didn’t shift.
But my awareness did.
A second layer peeled over reality, like a transparent veil of coded symbols and phantom blue glyphs. It hovered—no, merged—with my thoughts.
I didn’t need to read it.
I understood it.
It was speaking to something older than memory and newer than death.
Ash — Current Classification: Skeleton (Tier-0 Undead)
- Core Sync: 19%
? Soul Capacity: 4/10
? Essence Integrity: Stable
— Bone Density: Moderate
— Reflex Potential: Adaptive
— Combat Archetype: Unaligned
【Mutation Path Options – Preview Mode】
– Bone Reaver [Aggression / Weapon Assimilation]
– Carrion Ghoul [Tank / Flesh Storage]
Conflict Detected: Class Signature not yet stabilized
Suggested Directive: Engage stronger prey to define evolutionary bias.
Two names.
Two fates.
Bone Reaver. Carrion Ghoul.
Both called to something primal in me—but opposite somethings.
I focused on the Bone Reaver icon.
A shadowed figure appeared—skeletal, elongated, armed with a bladed forearm and jagged spinal ridges extending like natural armor. The glyph read:
“Strike First. Drink Deep. Weapon is Will.”
Aggression. Precision. Tactical Predation.
That felt… close. Like something I already was.
Then I checked the other path.
Carrion Ghoul.
Heavier build. Bulked limbs. A face still skull-shaped, but layered with sinew and leathery flesh. Black stomach-like sacs bulged beneath its ribcage—flesh consumed, stored, weaponized.
“Consume. Withstand. Endure. Become Tomb.”
A walking grave. Resilient. Slow. Endless.
It repulsed me.
Not because of its form.
But because I knew it would make me stop moving.
Stop planning. Stop learning.
It would reduce me to reaction—not action.
But the system wasn’t asking me to pick.
Not yet.
The menu flickered. A line pulsed red at the top of the interface.
【Evolution Locked: Insufficient High-Grade Essence Acquired】
Hint: Feed on entities possessing intelligence, core fusion, or race-bound skillsets.
Progression requires: Distinct path commitment.
I stepped back.
The interface dimmed—still there, but now like a ghost at the edge of my perception.
I breathed in reflexively—though I had no lungs.
“This isn’t about survival anymore.”
It never had been.
Not really.
Surviving was the floor.
But domination?
Evolution?
Designing what I become?
That was the ceiling.
And I was going to break through it.
“I won’t evolve into whatever this world lets me be.”
I flexed my skeletal fingers. They moved like weapons now.
“I’ll evolve into what I choose to become.”
Even if it meant consuming something smarter. Something crueler. Something like... me.
Especially if it meant that.
The interface dimmed, retreating into the folds of my awareness like a curtain drawn across a battlefield yet to be won.
But something else—something far less subtle—rose in its place.
A low, guttural rumble drifted through the walls.
Then another. Closer.
And another.
Not the skitter of Crypt Rats. Not bone shifting in place.
Something larger. Thicker. Something built for killing.
【WARNING: Predator Tier Entity Detected】
Class: Gravehowl
Rank: Level 5 – Elite Undead Beast
Status: Active
Temperament: Hostile
Range: ~62 meters
Vector: Closing
【System Directive: Avoid Encounter or Evolve Immediately】
Risk: High. Combat Potential – Fatal.
I stood motionless.
Not from fear.
From calculation.
A faint breeze brushed through the corridor—a breath exhaled by something deeper in the crypt. Even without nerves, my bones felt it. That rumble wasn’t just sound.
It was a warning growl.
Gravehowl.
The name alone scraped across instinct like a serrated edge. I didn’t remember it—but the system did. Which meant it had killed before.
Something like me.
I glanced down.
At my feet lay the third rat, body still twitching, soul half-coagulated.
I hadn’t absorbed it yet.
Hadn’t needed to.
Until now.
I crouched.
No hesitation.
Just hunger.
Fingers plunged into the rat’s ribcage, snapping bone like parchment.
I didn’t chew this time.
I ripped.
【Essence Consumed – Crypt Rat Lv. 3】
- Partial Memory Extracted
? Trait Absorbed: Subdermal Twitch (Stored)
? Bone Mass: +2
Soul Chew Engaged
Core Stability: 27%
Essence Threshold: 5/10
Not enough.
Not nearly enough.
The growl came again—louder now. The air shook around me. Dust fell from the ceiling in a fine veil.
The Gravehowl was moving faster.
I had seconds.
Not minutes.
The system flared once more.
【Mutation Path Catalyst Unlocked】
Bone Reaver – Eligible
Progression: Paused
Additional High-Grade Essence Required
I needed more mass. More soul. More fuel.
But all I had were scraps.
My eyes flicked across the dark.
The rats had fled—those that hadn’t died.
But the crypt was still full of bones.
And deeper still...
“Something worth eating is coming for me.”
I picked up my jagged spear—its shaft flickering with faint necrotic light.
It felt heavier now.
Not from weight.
From purpose.
I stared into the black of the corridor, where the growl echoed again, now louder, closer.
Footsteps. Big ones. Bone scraping stone.
“I’m not ready.”
The thought pulsed once.
But it was a lie.
“I need more bones.”
And if they didn’t come to me?
I would go to them.