The Heart of the Beast

Upon waking from a surprisingly peaceful sleep, Joseph reinforced his concrete platform, digging a little into the wall to camouflage its edges. With the ceiling high above and shadows cloaking everything, the chance of being spotted seemed slim—unless the creature had some sort of special vision or senses far beyond reasonable thought.

Once his gear was stowed, he used Magic-Spirit Communion to form a ping pong ball–sized orb of energy. A flick sent it spinning down the corridor, where the two forces collided violently on impact. The floor shook, a shockwave of sound and dust blasting outward creating visible waves of concussive force.

Wincing at the dull ache in his ears, he clenched his fist to push through the discomfort and waited. With no response, he cast another preparing a little more by plugging his ears right after. Again, and again, every five minutes or so, another concussive blast echoed through the halls.

On the sixth, a guttural roar answered, echoing from the deep. Footfalls soon followed—heavy, rushing, the ground trembling with each stride.

He quickly conjured a flame, floated it into the four-way intersection, and let it flare into a bonfire that bathed the passage in flickering light. He hurled one last shockwave near the blaze, then readied his bow. Drawn string, arrow nocked—he waited, steady.

Spirit Sight cut through the glare and shadow alike. A vast silhouette emerged at the corridor’s end, fixated on the fire in between him and the beast. It let out another guttural yell, requiring him to shake his head to re-calm his nerves.

Tensing its muscles it stared as the fire reflected in the savage eyes. At a moments notice it started charging- no higher thought, no plan, just pure savagery against thing it can. Feeling his perch vibrate he let in a sharp breath of air, only now did he open the flood gates of spirit and mana.

Not holding back for even a moment, he exhaled his tense breath and released. The arrow screamed through the air, piercing the beast’s jaw, driving down through its neck, and bursting out the back. Before the body even dropped, the mana–spirit inside the arrow violently collided, blasting the corpse forward in a final, intense shockwave.

'Overkill?' he thought, watching. 'I didn’t expect the arrow alone to work, so I forced the energies to collide inside it. One-third of my mana gone… but safe than sorry. Next time… a fifth should be enough hopefully.'

Not immediately heading down, he stayed put, listening for company, before finally checking his status and assigning his points at the same time.

Name: Joseph

Class: Spirit Ranger [E+] (+3 Spirit, +2 Dexterity, +2 Agility, +1 Magic)

Title: Survivor of the Unsurvivable

Level: 14 > 16

Vitality: 5
Strength: 20
Dexterity: 38 > 42
Agility: 38 > 42
Magic: 29 > 37
Spirit: 27 > 37

Available Stat Points: 10 > 0

Active Skills: Channel Spirits (D), Spirit Sight (D), Magic-Spirit Communion (D), Condensed Fireball (E), Concrete Creation (F), Bursting Shot (F), Piercing Shot (F), Mana-Spirit Shockwave (E)

Passive Skills: Survivor (D), Spirits Affection (E), Exploit Weak Point (E), Mana Control (E), Concealed Presence (E), Silent Steps (E), Focused Hearing (F)

Bursting Shot (F) – Imbue an arrow with mana and spirit to burst on impact or manual detonation, dealing extra damage in a minuscule area.
Piercing Shot (F) – Minuscule increase to an arrow’s piercing power using mana.
Mana-Spirit Shockwave (E) – Combine mana and spirit to produce a sound shockwave with a chance to disrupt mental spells.
Exploit Weak Point (E) – Highlights additional weak points on a target, causing slight extra damage when struck.

'Good. Magic and spirit now balance out with agility and dexterity. My focus is on keeping them tight together, so I’ll keep pushing those stats.

The shot skills are nice, but nothing I couldn’t already force manually—it’s just quicker now. The upgrade to Exploit Weak Point is more useful, marking more vulnerabilities.

The real gem is Mana-Spirit Shockwave. It seems rare for a skill to start at E-rank. Disrupting mental spells? That’s serious. And if I angle it right, high-frequency blasts could rupture eardrums—or worse, scramble something inside the skull. That has some real potential so long as the skill isn’t too restrictive.'

With no further sounds, he climbed down to examine the corpse.

The thing looked like a nightmare between orc and myth. A hulking, muscle-bound evolution of the horned orcs he’d fought before, its horns massive—three times larger, curling and thick with brutal weight. They radiated the kind of raw savagery that could spear bodies clean through.

Its body while not dissimilar was covered with a lot more savage, unkempt hair. Its feet where more hoof-like with its toes curled and merged together, almost unnaturally. The legs bulged and pulsed even after death, seemingly having been a targeted spot more than other muscles for growth on this freakish evolution.

A little unsettled by its appearance, he worked with practiced precision: skinning, separating the colossal horns, washing them with summoned water, drying with controlled fire. Hide and horns went into his pack—future weapons, armor, and trophies.

From the body itself, he kept only the ginormous heart. Roasting it over the fire, he ate slowly. He didn’t put much faith in myths of consuming strength, but stories had their logic—and there was no harm trying. Besides, it wasn’t nearly as unpleasant as one might think, in fact, he soon found it his favorite cut of meat from the orcs he had hunted so far.

Afterward, he tossed more sound-bait shockwaves and decided to be more pro-active in checking his status, regardless of whether there’s a reason to.

Title: Survivor of the Unsurvivable, One Who Consumes Enemies’ Hearts (very low chance to gain a minuscule portion of the heart owner’s strength)

Joseph blinked in shock and thought he was seeing things. Checking again, the change still stood true.

'A new title? How… rare? I can understand where this one came from, the other, slightly, but it’s hard to tell what’s the actual driving factor behind their acquisition. Luck? A set of specific actions? Well regardless, this is certainly a little strange. Hopefully there’s no way to view another person status because if there is, I’d look like a lunatic. “One Who Consumes Enemies’ Hearts” is not exactly a friendly name for a title, not ideal.'

He frowned, then smirked.

'But, that said, the effect’s solid. “Very low chance” has to be at least one percent, otherwise it’d be worded differently. Hopefully one in a hundred, or one in a thousand at worst, if it’s more… then whatever, really. With enough kills, it’ll happen eventually—and if it does, hopefully on something valuable. A dragon, maybe? Oh, a phoenix would be pretty cool. At least if it gives skills, if it’s purely stats then it may not be as good as I think.'

He lobbed another shockwave down the corridor, waited in silence, then shouldered his sack.

‘Alright, enough playtime. This labyrinth is already too long as it is, I miss the fresh air, man.’