The Last Dainv-SIDE STORY 2 (Formerly Chapter 6)

The Last Dainv-SIDE STORY 2 (Formerly Chapter 6)

The forest beast's eyes locked onto Gale. Saliva drooled from the corners of its mouth.
No time to wait. He bolted and ran straight to one of his traps. The beast chased him. He could hear the stomps on the ground, slightly shaking the branches near him.
The first trap was close. Only needing to jump over a low brush to get into position.
Suddenly, he heard a blanket of leaves and branches collapse behind him. The trap worked. The beast had stumbled into the pitfall, and it groaned in pain.
The beast climbed back up. Two spears had stuck themselves into both flanks of the beast and black goo dripping from the spears. The hope Gale felt didn't last long as the beast sprinted at him again.
Gale turned around and went to the next trap he had planned. He could sense the details of the beast even as he ran away from it using Breath of the Void. Its teeth stuck out, blackened and browned. Its groans and growls let out a decaying scent. Its leather glistened under the blue moonlight's rays that passed through the canopy. In other words, it was fugly.
He jumped over the pit that was now in position, but the beast was smarter. It too jumped over the pit, missing the trap completely. Then it hit him, the skill Distort. It could refract or bend light. It could be used as a visual illusion.
Gale stopped, then turned to face the beast. He focused in front of him, using Distort on the space ahead. Not the best time to test things, but he had no choice.
"Come on, one of us is going to eat the other," Gale muttered.
The forest beast jumped, mouth wide open to swallow him—missed. It landed slightly to the side. The refraction of light made him look a few steps away from his actual position.
He took his chance and stabbed his crude spear into the beast's head. The spear shot forward faster than he expected. But its skull was harder than expected, and the angle wasn't perfectly perpendicular. The spear scraped off, leaving a cut across its face. Blood dripped down, but the strike only made the beast angrier.
Before he could move, a massive paw slammed into his chest. He flew back into a tree, losing his breath. Then the beast was on top of him.
Oh shit no. He was about to die. He kicked at the beast's belly, but it felt like kicking a wall. His fingers searched for anything to use as a weapon. He found the rock he used for sharpening wood.
He yelled and stabbed upward. The leather skin was too tough. The rock only left a small scratch.
Time slowed. The beast's jaws moved toward his face, its breath stinking of old dead meat.
An idea hit him. Phase Touch. His most useless skill so far. It let objects pass through other objects. Crazy idea, but better than nothing.
Gale focused on the rock and activated Phase Touch. His arm and the stone became see-through. He swung his arm straight into the beast's chest, then released the skill when the rock was inside the heart.
Nothing happened for a moment. Then the forest beast twitched, then went into spasms. It backed away, shaking. Gale crawled backward, watching.
The beast fell to the ground, twitching randomly. It wheezed one last time, then it completely stopped breathing.
Gale approached carefully. Everything had happened so fast. He wasn't sure what worked. He crouched over the beast to check.
He took out another stone, sharp but not as sharp as the one inside the beast. He cut into its belly. Each cut was a fight against the tough leather. After breaking through, cutting the meat and going through the organs became easier.
There it was. Right where he released it. The rock was stuck in the heart. He cut the heart out and looked closer. The heart had merged with the stone.
Gale stared at it. His abilities were weird, but this was something else. He could put objects inside living things. That would only work if an enemy let him get close enough and patiently waited for him to do so. Though, against these beasts, it was a great tool.
He stood up and wiped the blood on his worn pants. Time to head back to his shelter. Staying here made him an easy target.
A faint glow from the beast's body stopped him. It was the same light from his first kill. Pale dust floated toward him.
[Awakened Forest Beast felled.]
[Extracting Origin from prey…]
Warmth washed away his tiredness. His muscles felt stronger, more flexible. Each kill changed him. He checked his system.
…
Name: Gale Hathie
Race: Dainv
Core Class: Awakened
Core Density: 0.75/12
Core Attributes: [
Max Load: 5
Efficiency: 1
Essence: 0/100
]
Skills:
[Phase Touch Lv.1][Alter Lv.1][Distort Lv.1]
Passives:
[Breath of the Void Lv.1]
Missions:
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. sightings.
[Exit the Rift]
…
His core density had increased. The system always called the beasts "prey." He wasn't a predator. In the orphanage, he was strong, but he wouldn't call any of those children prey. He was also much smaller than these beasts. Yet the system considered all of these as
prey.
It was obvious what it wanted. The system wanted him to become a predator. To treat these living things as only sustenance for his growth. Dad always said that humans were the apex predator on Earth. Even a polar bear would cower under humans given the proper tools.
"What the hell are you?" he whispered, staring at the screen.
Gale felt relieved when the system didn't answer. He wouldn't know what to say if it could talk. No manual came with the system, just like everything else in life. He'd already gotten used to it by now.
One thing he knew, though, he had to use it. As long as it was with him, he'd exploit it as much as possible.
Gale grabbed the beast with one hand, then he walked back to the camp, dragging along the carcass. Each step made his muscles ache. Still, a smile formed on his lips.
Another win. Another power-up.
Each kill would give him multiple days of survival just from the food alone. The more important thing was that each kill gave him slightly more strength. This world took the meaning of natural selection and bumped it up to 11.
The goal was clear. Kill as many of these. Level up. Repeat until he became the apex predator of this goddamned eclipsed forest.
Gale entered his home camp. The smell of smoked meat wafting through the air greeted him. He wasn't sure whether that was a good thing or not, but he hadn't encountered any beasts so far.
Gale dropped the beast beside the campfire. He wiped his sweat from his forehead, smearing dirt across it.
"Time to work," he said, looking at the corpse.
He started cutting up the beast, remembering what his dad taught him about butchering animals. The beast walked on four legs. It was similar to animals his dad had shown him. That was the only thing fortunate in this situation. If he managed to kill one of those winged, faceless bird monstrosities, he wasn't sure how he would go about it.
Again, he did the motions of butchering automatically. Bones first, then work on stripping the muscles. First, the two front legs. Then the two rear legs. Then the ribs, which opened the rest of what was inside. Then the head.
His spear had bounced off the beast's skull. That gave him an idea.
He stripped away flesh from the bones, working to scrape off muscle and guts. His body started remembering the skill his dad had ingrained into him. Each swipe of the flesh became more precise. Once the skull was clean, he walked to the creek.
The water turned red as he washed the skull. He picked off the last bits of meat stuck to the bone. He lifted it up to look at it. It was huge—twice the size of his head.
"Crazy…" he whispered with a smile.
He went back to the carcass and took more bones. He needed all the big ones. He started carving out pieces of the ribs for body armour. He cut long, flat pieces of leather. Those long, flat pieces would be refined into leather string to hold parts together.
Hours passed by. He tightened up the leather string for the arm guards and the shin guards. Then he strapped on the rib cages he carved to be small enough to fit his torso. Finally, he hoisted the large skull of the beast onto his head, tying it down to the torso piece.
He went to the creek to see his reflection.
The water rippled with the current. Gale looked down. For a moment, he didn't recognize himself. The skull helmet made his head look too big. The dark eye sockets gave him goosebumps. Bone plates covered his whole body. He looked like a nightmare creature.
I look scarier than those beasts.
A laugh broke out, starting as a chuckle then turning into full-on howling as he grabbed his sides.
'What would they think of me now?' he laughed. He pictured the orphanage staff's horror. What would Ms. Molly say. Would the kids from the orphanage even go near him while he wore this terrifying outfit?
Gale stayed low as he moved through bushes. Several spears stuck up from his back. He'd gotten used to their weight. His new strength let him carry even more if they didn't slow him down. Five was the limit in case one broke.
The forest spread out before him. His eyes moved side to side, watching for any movement. He'd spent days setting traps throughout his area, from basic to complex ones. He'd lost count of how many.
His essence was almost at maximum. He liked seeing the number so high. Now he could use his skills freely without worrying about running out. He flexed his hands and felt essence flowing through them. The feeling had become normal, almost natural.
He remembered phasing a rock into a beast's heart. The memory no longer bothered him. It was just another survival tool now.
Gale pushed deeper into the forest to expand his territory. The air grew thicker and mustier in the new areas. He crouched to study the ground. A set of tracks marked the soft earth.
Three-toed prints, each big enough to fit his whole torso.
He followed the tracks, marking his path so he could find his way back. This beast didn't care about hiding. It left destruction in its wake, not caring who followed. Arrogant beast, Gale thought.
In a clearing, he spotted it. Its body was all muscle, different from the other forest beasts. Its legs were longer, making it taller and bigger than the first beast that had scared him. Its nostrils flared as it caught a scent.
Gale didn't wait. Essence surged into his hands as he used Alter to shorten a spear. He released the skill and the spear flew through the air, its bone tip catching the blue moonlight.
The beast knocked the spear to the side with its massive paw. The wooden shaft broke. It roared.
Gale turned and ran. Behind him, each step of the beast shook the ground. The spear was the ideal scenario. The traps were the actual plan.
He cut left, ducking under branches and jumping over logs. The creature crashed through the logs behind him, not slowing at all.
Up ahead, he spotted his outer traps. A thin vine stretched between two trees, almost invisible except to his Breath of the Void. Gale jumped over the wire, missing it only by a millimetre.
The beast ran through, its foot catching the vine and setting off the trap. Crackling sounds erupted around them. Vines snapped to trigger the trap's mechanisms.
Gale turned to watch.
A huge log swung through the trees. It slammed into the beast with a crunch, sending it flying through the air. The beast roared.
It bounced off several trees before hitting a final one that stopped its flight. The ground shook as it landed, sending up a cloud of dust that made it harder to see than it already was.
For a moment, Gale stood catching his breath. The silence made his ears ring. He gathered essence into his limbs, ready for the ambush. Then a familiar screen appeared before he could check his kill.
[Awakened Forest Beast felled.]
[Extracting Origin from prey...]
Energy surged through his veins as the grains entered his body. His muscles grew larger, his skin stretching to fit. When the feeling passed, he felt different. Stronger. More in tune with the savage world.
A new message appeared:
[Core density increased.]
[Core density: 1/12]
[Core density is divided into core parts.]
[Core parts are distributed automatically in the Awakened Core Class.]
[Muscle Core part built. Body rigidity increased.]
[Kill more prey to attain more core parts. Subsequent core parts require more Origin.]
His first milestone in core density. The essence in his veins felt different, more vivid. It seeped into his muscles now, not just his veins, and was easier to control.
The system said core parts were distributed automatically for now. That meant when he reached his next core class, he could choose where they went. What that might mean, Gale didn't know.
Looking at his fallen prey, he realized he'd crossed a line. Taking down the beast had been too easy. Another smile formed on his lips. Maybe living in this death trap wasn't so bad after all.

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SIDE STORY 2 (Formerly Chapter 6)