Chapter 69 – Monsters [2]

The Ravager was made of bones; full, thick, and carved with obvious strength that made the air ripple faintly at its every movement.

Its face was wide, flat and square, two empty sockets that revealed nothing but voided consciousness, and a mouth crammed to the brim with spear-like teeth every time it snarled.

It looked like an ape stripped entirely of flesh, meat and organs — a mockery to the eyes — walking on four humongous limbs, each step sending a faint tremor through the earth.

It opened its mouth and let out a deep, threatening growl that reverberated through the silent training realm.

Cassius watched it quietly, leaning on his cane with easy laziness, reading its power and the essence coating its ridiculous frame.

A Bone Ape Ravager. Tier Seven, though this one’s essence sat closer to the level of a Tier Six. It was monster well within the range of someone at Mortal Self rank.

And even if monsters tended to outmatch humans at the same level, Cassius was no ordinary man.

He closed his eyes briefly. That simple action carried a strange effect, the temperature around him began to climb.

Then slowly, like water finding its way through a riverbed, his essence moved forward steadily and confidently.

The monster paused instinctively, sensing the particular density of his crimson essence.

He didn’t mind. Eyes closed or not, he could still feel the monster perfectly through his other perceptions.

He turned his focus inward. And this time, unlike before, he did not coat his whole body. He took deliberate control and directed his essence only to his right hand and his weapon. All to conserve it so that ut could last longer.

’I can’t keep relying on blanketing my whole body. It wastes too much.’ He thought, feeling how much harder it was to isolate just one part of himself rather than flooding everything at once.

Still, he held. The last event had made it clear how much he still lacked. That memory alone kept him from cutting corners.

Losing patience, and sensing the dangerous aura bleeding from him, the Bone Ape Ravager howled and launched forward on all four limbs.

Bones cracked the ground with each bounding stride. The beast used the momentum to build speed fast, closing the gap in an instant with its left front limb swinging down in a vertical chop, right front limb slashing horizontal, left to right.

The air whistled, then split into gusts at the attack.

Cassius’s eyes opened and watched both limbs shift with bony arms reshaping into sharp pointed spears that gleamed under the pale light.

Calmly, breathing unchanged, he waited until the attack was an inch from his face, felt the displaced air brush his skin, and moved one step, dipping right, the downward slash whistling past his left side.

He raised his cane and caught the horizontal slash with the staff-sheath.

Bones met steel. The monster snarled.

The left limb finished its downward sweep and struck toward the ground. At that moment, Cassius slipped the thin blade free from his cane and in one clean motion drove it through the descending limb, pinning it to the earth while the staff-sheath continued holding the right at bay.

Both sword and staff-sheath blazed with crimson fire. A fire that burned without distinction.

The monster howled and began thrashing erratically.

Cassius pulled back the thin blade back out and drove it into the open, snarling mouth.

White blood splattered out. A screech of pain followed. In rage and madness, the monster snapped at the weapon with its monstrous jaw.

Or tried to.

Before its mouth could close, Cassius’s sword blazed brighter, and he ran pointed needles of fire along the entire length of the blade.

The jaw snapped shut. The monster screamed louder, its mouth shattering and burning from the inside simultaneously.

It tried to use its remaining limbs to push away. But Cassius’s right hand left the sword and pressed flat against the bone-plated square of the Ravager’s skull.

His palm was slicked with his own blood. The Ravager shuddered with something close to existential fear.

Cassius grinned.

"Blood Explosion."

The head of the monster detonated into fragments of bone and white blood, spraying the air in front of him in a thoroughly grim fashion.

The body went limp and dropped.

Cassius exhaled, retrieved his weapon, and felt something move through his body: a sense of something tightening, sharpening.

A notification panel blinked.

[Your body is being enhanced.]

The corpse glowed with a pale white lustre. Where the head had been, the essence of the world gathered and condensed, transmuting it into something else entirely.

When the light faded, Cassius crouched over the remains, eyes widening slightly.

[You have obtained: Bag of Bones (Tier 7), Necklace of Bone Ape (Unranked).]

[Bag of Bones (Tier 7): Bones from the Bone Ape Ravager. Useful material applicable in alchemical processes, blacksmithing, or as a condition for evolution.]

[Necklace of Bone Ape (Unranked): No particular use except its odd shape. Wearing this may endear you to Apes.]

"Oh my." He picked up both items, a grey bag rattling with bones inside, and a necklace shaped like two large arms beating a bony chest. "I have been rather lucky lately, haven’t I?"

It was moments like this that reminded him of this world’s game-like quality. And every game had item drops when one killed monsters.

It was not always, as it depended heavily on luck, the rank of the beast, and how it matched against your own level.

A Tier Seven monster rarely gave anything worth noting.

Yet it had.

His mind drifted, without him fully intending it, to the broader concept of monsters in Sunu Gaal, the growls of the remaining beasts in the prisons registering distantly as background noise.

’Ravagers are the most common type by far.’ He thought, turning the necklace between his fingers. ’But alongside them exist Voids and Wraiths. Ravagers consume bodily and any physical aspects of the world. Voids consume the mind. Wraiths consume emotions.’

These were the three types. But type alone didn’t fully differentiate them. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Monsters were born from the essence of the world itself, and they came into existence with a Path already embedded in them.

A Path.

In the same way humans had Origin Pools inherited through bloodline — Shadow and Blood for his family, Death for the Hood — monsters operated the same way.

The Bone Ape Ravager he had just killed walked the Bone Path. The Blood Spawn Ravager from the Base Operation walked the Blood Path.

A Path wasn’t limited to species, a snake could very walk the Bone Path. But from what Cassius remembered from the game, each monster type was restricted to its own set of Paths.

’Voids are the only types that can walk the Wisdom Path and the Mind Path. Wraiths walk the Emotion Paths: Pride, Sorrow, Joy and so on. And Ravagers hold the monopoly on Bone, Blood, Stone, Metal, Transportation and the like.’

’Ah.’ He sighed, standing. ’It’s all so tediously complicated.’

[It is.] Ananke said, chuckling at her Blessed’s weary expression. [And that’s before adding Spirits on the Elemental Paths and the Irregulars into the picture.]

’Those two categories are special even among monsters. I’ll worry about Ravagers, Voids and Wraiths first.’ He continued internally. ’At least their advancement is relatively straightforward. All they do is consume: core for Ravagers, heart Seed for Wraiths and Mind Tree for Voids.’

[Aye.] The Queen of Fate nodded. [They simply devour those materials from beings on their own Path until saturation. Their bodies adapt and rank up, gaining unique skills from each evolution.]

She paused.

[However, that only holds until Tier Five. Stepping into Tier Four is no longer done through simple consumption. That is where things change significantly.]

Cassius tilted his head, something coming into place. ’Is that why Tier Four and above Fractured Lands are so rare compared to the others?’

[Yes.] Her voice turned slightly solemn, as if recalling something unpleasant. [At Tier Four, their consciousness has fully expanded, comparable to humans and other born races. They can build their own civilisations. Though Voids, given their Path, tend to reach that level of awareness at only Tier Five.]

’No wonder Exalted rank is the minimum for entering a Tier Four Fractured Land.’

[Exactly. So train and get stronger. You will need it.]

Cassius sighed, tilting his head upward, watching the red sky above for a moment.

He was now more motivated than before, with the dangerous weight of what roamed the world outside settling over him with new clarity.

He stored the items he had obtained and straightened his back. Sword in his right hand, staff-sheath in his left.

"Shall we, once again?"

Another monster came out of the prison.

And so Cassius continued his training, his Innate working at every turn, making him adapt to fighting monsters faster than anything else could.

—End of Chapter 69—