Chapter 76: Evolution Requires Violence [Part 2]

Chapter 76. Evolution Requires Violence [Part 2]

[Abyssal Hunter’s Domain]

My perception spread farther through the tunnels.

Footsteps hammered against stone.

Claws scraped walls.

Several mana signatures were approaching from the left passage, while another cluster was coming from deeper inside.

Apparently the Graveclaw Basilisk had been popular.

Or unpopular enough that everyone wanted to eat it.

Either worked for me.

My Abyssal Eye activated again.

Shapes appeared in the darkness.

The first creatures emerged at a sprint.

[Bloodfang Ravager]

[Rank: B]

Four of them.

Wolf-like monsters nearly twice the size of ordinary wolves, except their front limbs were disproportionately long and covered in bone spikes.

Behind them came something heavier.

[Stonehide Devourer]

[Rank: A]

Now that was interesting.

The Devourer was built like a bear someone had armored with an entire quarry. Thick plates of mineralized hide covered its shoulders and spine, while two curved tusks extended from its lower jaw.

More signatures moved behind it.

I counted.

Eight.

Eleven.

Fourteen.

My smile widened. "Jackpot," I whispered.

The first Bloodfang Ravager saw me.

Its eyes turned red.

It charged.

I raised my hand.

Forbidden Energy gathered.

[Corruption Bolt]

The projectile struck its chest.

The monster burst backward, blood spraying from its mouth as the bolt punched straight through its torso.

One.

Another leaped over it.

[Void Shift]

I vanished beneath its claws and reappeared five meters to the left.

Turn.

Aim.

[Corruption Bolt]

The second Ravager’s hind leg disappeared below the knee.

It crashed onto the ground, shrieking.

Three more rushed past it.

My Domain mapped every movement.

One left.

Two front.

Something crawling along the wall.

Another signature above.

My body moved before conscious thought could slow me.

I ducked.

Claws passed through my hair.

I pivoted.

My palm met the attacking creature’s abdomen. "Hello."

[Corruption Bolt]

Its body folded around the impact.

The blast launched it into the cavern wall, leaving a violent streak of blood across black stone.

I Void Shifted again.

A Ravager collided with the spot I’d occupied.

The Stonehide Devourer roared.

The entire cavern vibrated.

Now this was more like it.

My Forbidden Energy surged eagerly through my veins.

The horde spread through the passage, bloodlust overcoming whatever survival instinct they possessed.

I looked toward the daylight behind me.

Still accessible.

If the fight became too crowded, I’d retreat outside and gain more space.

Until then?

I rolled my shoulders. "Come on."

Black-violet energy gathered around both hands.

The darkness ahead filled with snarling mouths, claws, and glowing eyes.

My grin became positively unreasonable.

I hadn’t come here to survive a dungeon.

I’d come here to farm it.

The first Bloodfang Ravager charged through the narrow passage, its claws scraping sparks from the stone. Three more followed immediately behind it, using the confined space to funnel themselves toward me while the Stonehide Devourer lumbered after them like a moving wall.

Perfect.

I didn’t stand there throwing magic like some fragile backline mage waiting for the monsters to reach me.

The original Rey might not have been much of a combat magus in the physical sense. His absurd mana capacity had made physical combat almost unnecessary. Why dodge elegantly when twelve layers of barriers could simply tell the incoming attack to go f*ck itself?

Evan hadn’t possessed that luxury.

Ten percent.

That was how much of his original mana core Evan had been able to properly preserve and use.

And modern magical expeditions were dangerous.

Ancient ruins collapsed. Anti-magic zones existed. Mana disruption formations failed without warning. Monsters evolved in sealed environments. Teleportation could become impossible underground, and sometimes a perfectly respectable academic expedition turned into six exhausted researchers beating a mutant predator to death with enchanted excavation equipment.

So Evan had trained his body.

Footwork.

Balance.

Close combat.

Mana-efficient movement.

How to kill something when throwing another spell wasn’t an option.

The downside? Evan had a terrible habit of forgetting to eat and sleep whenever he got too absorbed in his research.

Now I had Rey’s body, Evan’s experience, and considerably more than ten percent of a functional mana core.

That combination felt almost unfair.

I shifted my weight as the Ravager lunged. Forward.

One step carried me diagonally inside the arc of its claws. I lowered my shoulder, slipped underneath the strike, and pivoted beside its ribs while my Abyssal Eye painted its vulnerable points across my vision.

Heart.

Lower throat.

Joint beneath the left foreleg.

Core behind the sternum.

I chose the heart.

Three black-violet lights appeared around my shoulder.

[Corruption Bolt]

I didn’t need three.

One entered beneath the Ravager’s foreleg at nearly point-blank range.

The explosion happened inside its chest.

Its body jerked violently.

Blood blasted from its mouth and nose, coating the stone ahead as the projectile ripped through organs before bursting from the opposite side.

I was already moving before it fell.

The second Ravager came from my right.

I ducked beneath its jaws, planted one hand against the ground, and swung my leg around to reposition rather than wasting mana teleporting. Its momentum carried it past me.

My fingers flicked.

Two waiting Corruption Bolts changed direction.

One pierced the back of its knee.

The second entered through its exposed abdomen.

Its leg folded.

The monster crashed face-first into stone and skidded through the blood left by the first corpse.

I stepped onto its back.

A third bolt formed above my palm.

It punched straight through the base of its skull.

Blood splashed across my boot.

The third and fourth Ravagers attacked together.

My Domain caught both movements before I even turned.

One high.

One low.

I twisted sideways, letting the first leap past my shoulder while my boot came down against the second creature’s muzzle. The impact wasn’t enough to injure something B-rank, but I didn’t need damage.

I needed its head exactly there.

Four Corruption Bolts appeared.

I clenched my fingers.

They descended.

The Ravager beneath my boot became a ruin of torn flesh and shattered bone.

The one behind me landed and spun.

Too slow.

I turned with it, drove my elbow against its jaw to disrupt the bite, then released another bolt through its open mouth.

Its throat bulged grotesquely.

The back of its neck exploded.

Warm blood sprayed across my face.

I blinked through it.

The Stonehide Devourer arrived.

That one was different.

A-rank.

My Abyssal Eye immediately showed me why casually bombarding it would be inefficient. Its mineralized hide wasn’t merely physical armor. Mana circulated through those stone plates, reinforcing them from within.

The Devourer swung one enormous paw.

I moved.

Not fast enough.

Its claws grazed my side, tearing through my shirt and sending me stumbling.

Pain flashed across my ribs.

My grin widened.

Nice, something capable of fighting back.

Six Corruption Bolts appeared behind me and launched.

The Devourer lowered its armored shoulder.

Three exploded against the stone plating.

Chunks broke away, but the creature continued forward.

The fourth and fifth struck its chest.

The sixth missed entirely when it suddenly accelerated.

I planted my foot, shifted my body at the final instant, and slid beside its charging mass close enough to smell the blood and rot trapped between its tusks.

Its armor scraped my sleeve.

My hand moved.

Light condensed between my fingers.

[Eclipse Light Manipulation]

A short black-and-silver dagger formed in my grip.

Small. Compact. Much easier to place accurately than some oversized magical sword.

My Abyssal Eye found the gap beneath the Devourer’s shoulder plate.

I plunged the dagger into it.

The monster roared.

Then I changed the shape.

The dagger lengthened instantly.

A blade erupted deeper inside the creature without requiring another wound, extending through muscle and between ribs until the tip pierced something important.

Its roar turned wet.

I twisted my wrist.

The Eclipse blade expanded another half meter inside its body.

Blood poured around my hand.

The Devourer convulsed.

I released the weapon, ducked beneath another desperate swipe, and rolled away as the blade dissolved inside it.

Then I raised two fingers.

Three Corruption Bolts formed.

The damaged armor had exposed the flesh beneath.

I fired all three into the same wound.

The first widened it.

The second disappeared inside.

The third detonated somewhere near the creature’s heart.

The Devourer stopped.

Its enormous body swayed.

Blood streamed from its mouth.

Then several hundred kilograms of monster collapsed hard enough to shake the cavern floor.

A notification appeared.

[Evolution Progress: 42%]

My Domain screamed another warning through my awareness.

More monsters.

Many more.

The blood had traveled through the cracks in the dungeon floor, and apparently Hollowgrave’s residents had collectively decided I’d opened a restaurant.

Excellent.

I stepped over the Devourer’s corpse.

Something dropped from the ceiling.

I shifted left.

Claws struck stone.

My elbow slammed into the creature’s neck while three Corruption Bolts materialized around its head.

They fired simultaneously.

The head disappeared beneath black-violet explosions.

[Evolution Progress: 43%]

Another monster came through a side passage.

Abyssal Eye found the weakness.

Corruption Bolt entered it.

The creature burst open.

[Evolution Progress: 45%]