The dungeon trembled again—a deep, resonant vibration that shivered through Kail's bones. Dust drifted from the ceiling. Somewhere in the dark, stone cracked like the shifting of colossal limbs.
Whatever lived deeper inside the Maw… it was awake now.
Kail exhaled slowly. The raw burn of the Devour process still pulsed through his veins—like swallowing lightning. His senses felt stretched, sharpened.
He could hear every drip of moisture, every twitch of movement in the walls.
And beneath it all…Hunger.
Not physical hunger.Something deeper.Primal.Alien.
This came from the Devour skill…
As if in response, faint text flickered into view.
[System Boot Sequence: 27% → 31% → 38%...]
It was slow. Sluggish. Like something damaged or incomplete.
Kail frowned. "Are you broken…?"
The text glitched—static distorting around the symbols.
Then a small window forced itself open.
[Status Window — Primitive Mode]
Everything went momentarily still.
"…Show it," he whispered.
The window expanded.
────────────────────────NAME: KailSPECIES: Human (??? — Mutation Pending)STATE: Injured, AwakeningTRAITS:• Feral Instinct (New)• Human Tenacity
ATTRIBUTES:• Strength: 3 → 5• Reflexes: 3 → 6• Vitality: 3 → 4• Hunger: 1
ACTIVE SKILLS:• Devour Lv. 1────────────────────────
Kail stared.
Those numbers… pathetic. Weak.But the shifts—the increases—those were real.
His pulse quickened.
He could grow.
He could become something else. Something stronger.
Something dangerous.
A new line flashed.
[Warning: Hunger increases with every Devour.][Hunger influences behavior.][Uncontrolled Hunger may result in loss of self.]
Kail's jaw tightened.
So the power came with a price.
Fine.
Power always did.
A distant scraping sound echoed through the corridor behind him—sharp, like stone dragged against bone.
Kail snapped to attention.
Instinct—Feral Instinct—ignited in his mind. A map of tension and threat formed in his awareness.
Something's coming. Something bigger.
He looked down and realized he was still unarmed, still bleeding.
He needed more strength. More traits. More tools.
Only one way to get them.
He turned toward a branching tunnel where the sound grew louder.
"Come on then," he murmured, voice low, steady. "Let's see what you taste like."
He stepped into the darkness.
The tunnel narrowed around him, the walls pulsing faintly as if alive. His footsteps echoed in a sick rhythm. And then—
He heard it.
Wet breathing.Heavy. Slow.Too big for a Devourling.
A silhouette emerged, illuminated by green veins in the wall.
Not a Devourling.
This one was taller. Broader. Plates of bone jutted from its shoulders. Its arms dragged on the floor, ending in hooked claws. Its skull had a jagged horn crest, and its mouth—
—opened sideways, four-way like a blooming flower.
A Devourbeast.
Kail's heart hammered once.
Not good.
The creature reared back and unleashed a guttural roar that shook dust loose from the ceiling.
Kail's instincts roared back.
He didn't run.
He lunged.
Because he wasn't just surviving anymore—
He was evolving.