Chapter 60: Borrowed Body

Something that wasn’t Raive had taken over his body.

Raive wasn’t sure who it was, or what it was, but he could tell it wasn’t something he’d want the others to encounter. It was vile, vicious, and completely uncontrollable.

He wasn’t sure whether it was luck or the opposite, but his own consciousness remained intact.

He could see through his eyes, hear through his ears, feel through his entire body. But the thoughts, the commands driving his body, weren’t his own.

’Stop...!’

Raive thought, but his body kept moving.

Around then, a new burst of information slid through his head, adding to the shock.

[After reaching 100 deaths, the lock on your soul has loosened.]

[An ancient being, ****, has partially awakened and taken over the user’s body.]

[Time before regaining control: 4:59.88]

Five minutes.

In five minutes, Raive would regain control of his body. But he feared the worst could happen long before that.

"Grrrr...!"

Thankfully, whatever controlled him didn’t run—it moved straight into the gate.

Whoever, or whatever, had taken over seemed to lack much intelligence for now, acting mostly on instinct, following the residual thoughts Raive had left behind.

And Raive’s last thought had been to clear this infinitely dangerous red dungeon.

The moment he stepped through, his body moved.

Like a phantom, his steps came quick and unpredictable. But instead of fleeing, he was charging straight at one of the monstrosities nearby.

’No! I’ll just die again like this!’

Raive thought, watching it all unfold in first person.

He felt every twist of his waist, every shift of his legs, every twitch and blink of his eyes. His gaze darted left and right so fast it blurred nearly everything. And yet his body moved without a shred of hesitation, closing the distance in an instant.

It was a giant, roughly ten meters tall, its bulk barely contained by the cavernous space around it.

Ten arms, six legs, three heads—human, bull, and eagle—stitched together into something monstrous. The sheer size alone was enough to intimidate, but Raive’s body didn’t slow down.

He swung the Tree Knight’s sword at one of its legs, Sword Flash riding the edge instead of firing out as a projectile. The strike dug halfway through bone... but not deep enough to sever it.

Raive, watching it happen, felt a jolt of shock.

’So that’s another way to use this skill...!’

He’d always wondered why something so simple ranked EX. Now he understood—he’d been handed an intercontinental ballistic missile and had been using it as a paperweight.

His body didn’t stop moving.

The instant the attack failed to land clean—spending barely 0.01 seconds registering it—he ripped the blade free and dashed off, drawing a second weapon into his left hand as he went. He struck the next leg the same way.

One slash cut halfway through. Not enough, again.

But then—

CLANG!

The second blade, a standard western sword picked up from an earlier dungeon, came down with Sword Flash too, finishing the cut the Tree Knight’s sword had started and severing the leg entirely.

Six legs meant one gone barely mattered.

WHOOSH!

Then the high-speed attacks came barreling in.

Strangely, in this state, Raive could actually see them clearly. Not rocks, not thrown weapons—bugs. Giant, fist-sized bugs tearing through the air at blistering speed.

"...!"

His body triggered Last Stand.

A skill that boosted toughness and defense by 140%—but Raive knew it wouldn’t be nearly enough against something like this. It was a drop of water on a hot stone.

The surprise wasn’t over yet.

His hands moved, swinging both swords fast, angled strangely but gripped firm and loose at once. Looking closer, the edges lined up perfectly with the bugs’ flight paths.

THUD!

Just as he expected, the bugs collided with the blades, sending him flying backward.

But the damage was lighter than he’d feared—a few bruises, a numb hand from absorbing the impact.

Bracing for another strike, he caught sight of two halves of the beetle-like monster dropping to the ground at the edge of his vision.

Dead.

’No way...’

Shock and awe hit him at once.

Whatever was piloting his body was doing things he’d thought were flatly impossible.

It felt like an eternity, but barely five seconds had passed since he’d entered the dungeon.

In that short span, his entire understanding of what he could do had been turned upside down. And after a full minute, he realized he’d barely scratched the surface.

"KISHIIIIIIII!"

THUD!

Another giant collapsed with a heavy thud, crumpling into the ground.

Dead.

Right—these were monsters on par with the one he’d once thought unbeatable. And his body, driven by something not himself, was cutting through them one after another.

If he hadn’t watched every second of it himself, he wouldn’t have believed it.

Watching the injuries stack up alongside the kills, it all felt like some endless, feverish dream—one he wouldn’t mind waking from right about now.

But the dream wasn’t done with him yet.

His body kept attacking without rest, almost immune to fatigue. The real reason was Healing Touch.

It was running constantly, stitching torn muscle back together, correcting the oxygen debt from moving at that speed nonstop. He was like a patient hooked to a machine, kept alive purely by the skill working overtime.

Speed Runner, Last Stand, Sword Flash, and now Healing Touch—all four running in parallel. Something Raive himself hadn’t even dared to attempt.

Time slipped by, and with it, more bodies dropped.

Raive watched it all without missing a beat, burning every movement, every action, every pattern into memory.

He meant to replicate it, to master it himself someday.

Ten seconds before the five minutes ran out, the last monster fell.

His body came to a stop in the middle of the carnage, standing there as if basking in the glory of having hunted down the impossible.

Then it drew a deep breath and roared.

"GRAAAAAAAH!"

Like a lion staking claim to its territory, the sound tore out loud and clear.

And then... the five minutes ran out.

"...Ah!"

Raive regained control of his body, and the instant he did, he dropped to his knees.

He hadn’t felt it while the thing was in control, but every muscle, tendon, and bone in his body was wrecked. He couldn’t even stand—his legs had turned to jelly.

But Raive didn’t complain. It hurt, but he’d gained far more than he’d lost.

All things considered, it was a win!