[No. Absolutely not. Those are D-rank cores. Trying to absorb one with your current capacity would be like trying to fill a shot glass with a fire hose. Your channels would rupture and you’d die in agony.]
[The answer is no, Luthra. I’ve run sixteen thousand simulations. They all end with you dead.]
Rebecca stirred in the cart, mumbling something about giant pickles chasing her. She rolled over and went back to snoring.
He stood up and walked to the cave entrance.
’We can’t stay here. Silas will send more hunters. And we’re running out of time.’
[Nine days remain on the quest timer.]
’Yeah, thanks for the reminder.’
He needed a plan. A real one, not just stumbling from disaster to disaster. The direct approach was suicide. Sneaking in was impossible with hundreds of guards. He needed something clever.
"Hey, Lilith. The file on Silas mentioned he has a garden of statues. People he’s petrified."
[Correct. Intelligence reports indicate over two hundred victims displayed on the grounds.]
[Unknown. Petrification magic varies by practitioner. Some versions kill instantly. Others preserve the victim in suspended animation.]
"So they might be alive in there."
[Theoretically possible, though reversing petrification requires either the original caster’s cooperation or extremely rare counterspells.]
An idea started forming. It was stupid. Incredibly stupid. But it might actually work.
"What if we don’t fight him at all?"
"His whole thing is control, right? Turn people to stone, display them like trophies. He’s an artist with a god complex. What if we give him something he can’t resist?"
[You’re thinking of using yourself as bait.]
"Not just bait. A challenge. These types always have the same weakness. They can’t resist proving they’re superior."
[That’s an enormous assumption based on no evidence.]
"Trust me, they’re all the same."
Rebecca sat up suddenly, her hair sticking up in twelve different directions.
"I had the weirdest dream. You were there, and you turned into a giant snake, and then we all got eaten by singing mushrooms."
"Sounds about right for this place."
"So what, we just sit here until your arms stop looking like purple sausages?" Rebecca poked her head around the cave wall, watching him.
"We wait. Then we move."
"Deeper into the forest."
"Are you insane?" She stepped fully into view, hands on her hips. "The creepy murder forest with the brain-melting bird things? That’s your plan?"
’Yeah, probably insane.’
The memory of the Shrieker’s attack came back - that ripple through the air, white-hot agony tearing through his skull before his other self had taken control.
’That Shrieker hit me with its sonic attack. You said it liquefies brains. Why am I still thinking?’
[I have been analyzing the encounter. My initial assessment was based on the monster’s effect on standard biological entities. You are not standard.]
’Just tell me what happened.’
[Your core operates on negative energy principles that violate this reality’s physics. The Shrieker’s sonic frequency destroys molecular bonds in normal matter. You have no normal matter for it to resonate with. Like trying to burn empty space.]
[The energy still caused severe pain because it violently agitated your seal, nearly shattering your consciousness. But the attack cannot destroy you. It is physically impossible.]
[To that specific attack, yes. You are a null-zone for that frequency. The perfect counter to Shriekers.]
He looked at the broken monster corpses outside the cave, then at his useless arms, then at the dark trees of the Labyrinth. A smile spread across his face.
He stood and walked out of the cave. She scrambled after him as he kicked over the nearest Shrieker corpse, exposing a faint glow in its chest.
"We’re going hunting."
"Hunting what? You can’t even pick up a stick right now! Please don’t say bugs. I’m not eating bugs."
He pointed at the dead Shrieker. "These."
"Did you land on your head? Those things tried to kill us! One made you go completely psycho!"
"They can’t hurt me." He knelt awkwardly, trying to pry the core from the creature’s chest with his splinted hands, fumbling uselessly. "And I won’t lose control again. The dog’s on a leash now." He tapped the serpent tattoo.
After watching him struggle for a moment, he gave up. ’This is embarrassing.’
"Rebecca, get the core."
She made a face but walked over and dug the glowing stone from the corpse, immediately wiping her hands on her pants. "Okay, so we have one magic rock. Now what?"
He couldn’t absorb D-rank cores - Lilith had been clear about that. But they were valuable, and every dead Shrieker meant one less threat. This forest wasn’t a hiding place anymore. It was hunting grounds.
"This is the dumbest plan I’ve ever heard. You’re bait, I’m the designated corpse-looter, and we’re both going to die."
"Probably. But it’s what we’ve got."
"When I get my brain melted, I’m haunting you."
Their first hunt went badly.
Luthra stomped through a clearing making noise while Rebecca hid behind a rock, clutching a sharp stone. A Shrieker emerged from the trees, drawn by the sound.
Its mouth opened. The sonic wave hit him, and even expecting it, the pain dropped him to his knees. His vision went white as he fought to keep his other self locked away.
The Shrieker lunged. Rebecca burst from hiding but the creature was already on him, talons raking his back.
Pain from his arms mixed with the sonic attack into one massive blur. The serpent on his arm writhed, begging for release.
He rolled sideways, tangling himself in his own chain. The Shrieker pounced again, head snapping down to bite. A rock cracked against its skull.
The creature screeched - an actual sound this time - and stumbled.
"Hey ugly! Yeah you, the walking nightmare!"
It turned toward Rebecca. Fatal mistake.
Luthra scrambled up, grabbed his chain, and whipped it around the Shrieker’s leg. He yanked hard, bringing it down, then drove his knee into its neck with his full weight until bones snapped.
He collapsed on the corpse, gasping. Every part of him hurt.
Rebecca jogged over. "See? Great rock-thrower, right here. Natural talent."
"You did good. Get the core."
They rested an hour before the next attempt. The following three hunts went smoother - they found a rhythm. Luthra drew the sonic attack and created openings while Rebecca’s surprisingly accurate rocks broke the creatures’ focus. Then he’d finish them.
Brutal, messy, agonizing. But effective.
By sunset they had twelve D-rank cores. Luthra looked like he’d been thrown down a mountain, his arms throbbed constantly, but satisfaction burned in his chest.
Back in the cave, Rebecca roasted dried meat over a tiny fire while Luthra sat with closed eyes, pushing his single point of mana through his body, focusing on his broken arms. Like watering a desert with a teaspoon.
[Luthra, your method is inefficient. The sonic attacks are causing cumulative neural damage. Your combat effectiveness will degrade within forty-eight hours.]
[Your Predator’s Instinct skill is not passive. Combined with Mind’s Eye, you could predict the Shriekers’ movements before they attack.]
[Stop thinking like a man. Think like the thing hunting them.]
He let the pain fade to background noise, focusing on the hunt memories - how Shriekers moved, how they tilted their heads before attacking. His Mind’s Eye expanded, not just seeing auras but feeling the intent behind them.
A flicker in the air. A shift in the forest’s silence.
His eyes snapped open.
Rebecca slept by the fire. He stood and moved to the cave mouth, staring into darkness. Mind’s Eye showed nothing - no auras, no red lines. But Predator’s Instinct was screaming.
Something was out there.