Avur regained consciousness, but could neither move nor speak and knew neither where he was nor what he was.
He has lost his memory; perhaps his teleportation magic failed so severely that he has forgotten everything.
But in Avur’s case, it’s particularly bad.
He knows nothing at all, not even that he comes from another world.
He’s starting from scratch.
Avur lay there for several minutes, oblivious to everything; only his eyes were open.
He was lucky he hadn’t stopped breathing.
Then his finger twitched slightly, which frightened Avur, and he began to say, “Ahh…
ohh…” He cannot speak, so this is the only way for him to communicate, just like a baby does.
He began to see his hand as a part of his body, unaware that every part of his body belongs to him.
Later on, a whisper-scale discovered Avur’s body lying on the ground.
The whisper-scale is made of matte black, light-absorbing scales.
In the dark, it appears as a three-dimensional, living shadow that can change its shape.
It has no visible ears; instead, its fine scales vibrate with every sound, and it has a forked tongue that captures sound waves from the air.
The whisper-scale begins to approach Avur; it can speak many languages and never forgets a single word.
Once it hears something, it will never forget it.
It often imitates loved ones to drive one insane.
When it stops moving, its upper body forms the silhouette of a human head in profile.
This attracts victims in the twilight.
It doesn’t crawl like a normal snake, but glides flat over surfaces.
It reached Avur and whispered in his ear; he didn’t understand a word the whisper-scale said, after all, he had forgotten everything.
The whisper-scale does not feed on flesh, but on the psychic energy generated by fear, paranoia, and guilt.
The more dark secrets it overhears, the larger and more powerful it becomes.
Avur was so startled that his body instinctively jerked him upwards and he walked away until he managed to run.
Unfortunately, the whisper-scale was faster than him, but Avur was making progress.
Now he can move his legs and run, even if it still looks a bit wobbly.
The whisper-scale feeds more on his fear and threatened him, saying: “If you try to escape, I might as well bite your head off.
I don’t want to waste my energy chasing you, so stay still for me.”
Avur, however, began to kick the whisper-scale and let out a high-pitched, piercing cry: “Waaaah!
Waaah!” He is definitely crying.
The whisper-scale grew increasingly annoyed and frustrated.
What teenager behaves like a baby?
The whisper-scale began biting Avur’s arm, hoping to stop him from kicking, but it only made things worse.
Avur only grew louder and screamed at the top of his lungs.
The whisper-scale’s weakness is loud noises, so it retreated, but it was so enraged that it returned moments later and tore Avur’s head off with its maw.
Avur saw nothing…
The whisper-scale disappeared, and then the world stood completely still; time ran backward to the point where the whisper-scale met Avur.
Avur was horrified and screamed when he found himself back at the place where he had encountered the whisper-scale.
The whisper-scale was confused.
Why is he already afraid of me?
I haven’t even started anything yet.
Avur stood up and ran away again.
He had no idea what was going on.
But then again, he didn’t know anything anyway. This story is hosted at g.com.
All he could do was walk, run, scream, and make a few noises; everything else around him escaped his comprehension.
He ran and ran, while the whisper-scale followed him, saying in many voices of unknown people that it imitated, “Don’t run away from me!
I’m just having fun!” Until it became so angry that it let out a loud scream and shouted in several voices at once, “I said don’t move or you’ll die!
Can’t you hear?!”
Then it began killing Avur again.
This time it towered over him more and more, until it strangled him to death with its long, serpentine body.
Avur could only desperately try to free himself from its grip, as he didn’t yet know his body well enough to use his full strength.
Avur died again, but not before biting the whisper-scale and screaming in pain.
Then time ran backwards again, taking him back a few seconds to the exact moment when the whisper-scale was towering over him.
To let him die over and over again, just as he screams in pain and becomes traumatized.
His foot is torn off, he bleeds to death, the whisper-scale breaks all his bones, bites his neck with its teeth and tears off some of his flesh, not to eat it, but to kill him.
And many other things happened to him; he died over 180 times trying to free himself from the whisper-scale’s grasp, trying to flee and fighting back, for in those 180 deaths he had learned to use his body in other ways to hurt the whisper-scale.
Then he was pinned to the ground by the whisper-scale.
Avur reached for the ground to stand up, but instead of grasping the ground, he pulled out the whisper-scale’s shadow, whose heart had stopped beating and which was paralyzed.
For who knew what Avur would do to his shadow if he made one wrong move?
The shadow in his hands felt like viscous oil, heavy smoke, and ice-cold water; it pulsed in his hands, rose up his arms, and then entered Avur’s mouth, causing him to gasp.
He couldn’t breathe, and his eyes began to water and turn red; the shadow had finally penetrated his body.
The whisper-scale vanished without a trace, and Avur lost consciousness as he saw all the memories of the whisper-scale haunting people, only to grow stronger from their fears when it revealed itself, or imitating the voice of a dead person, only to drive another person insane.
Therefore, Avur learned to speak to the people of this world in their language and even knew everything the whisper-scale knew about it.
However, he still didn’t know his own name or anything else about himself, and his mind felt as if it had been filled with a memory he hadn’t had before.
This awakened in him a desire to eat more shadows, just to see more of others’ memories, since he didn’t know where his own memories were, memories he also wanted to fill by acquiring the memories of others through eating their shadows.
He took a deep breath and tried to talk to himself to test if it would work: “Who am I?
I should try to find out.” His voice was a little hoarse, as he had only recently learned to speak.
He looked at his clothes and saw the word “MONSTER” on the back of his jacket.
He is convinced that his name is Monster.
He is somewhat confused, because who would want to be called that?
In the whisper-scale’s memories, he had seen that “Monster” was only used for people characterized by extreme cruelty, depravity, or a complete lack of empathy for others, or for unnatural beings or beasts.
He saw a book fall out of his jacket.
Had it been there the whole time?
He opened the book and read chapter by chapter until he found two things that resembled his current abilities: the save state and shadow-eating.
The words in the book rewritten themselves, so Monster almost dropped the book.
“Save State” is a “recall” or “save state” ability that allows you to rewind time by a few seconds to correct mistakes in combat.
Shadow-Eating: Shadows are essentially the “historical record” of where a person has been standing.
By peeling a shadow, you are physically grabbing that person’s personal timeline.
If you swallow it, it will let you relive their memories.
Monster could have sworn there was more on that page of the book, but since it had rewritten itself, he couldn’t know if it contained more than it told him it did.
He tried to activate his save state skill, and it actually worked; he was able to travel briefly into the past.
But now he felt exhausted.
Apparently, his ability had its limits, but when he died or when he swallowed the shadow of the whisper-scale, he hadn’t felt any such limits.
He left the area now, still frightened, but his personality had changed a little since eating the shadow of the whisper-scale, perhaps because he had seen things that made the world appear in a new light, or because he knew he couldn’t die—well, he believed he couldn’t die, but he had no proof, and he didn’t even attempt to kill himself just to see if he could keep coming back.
He heard someone call out: “Hello?
Is anyone here?” It was most likely an adventurer. The source of this chapter is g.com.
Monster came out of the dark forest and met a young woman, probably 21, who was looking for her group; she definitely hadn’t come here alone.
She didn’t see Monster as a threat and therefore didn’t even consider raising her sword against a teenager; instead, she worried about him.
“Are you all right?
Why are you out here alone?
This forest is dangerous; who knows what you might find there.” She examined Monster for injuries.
Monster averted his gaze.
He had felt the urge to devour her shadow and heard voices in his head urging him to do so.
He felt guilty for having thought about it and simply replied, “I am an adventurer myself.
I lost my party and am now completely alone.”
“Would you mind if I joined your group?” he asked.
The young woman said: “Of course you can join me, losing your group at such a young age must be hard.
I’ve lost mine too.
But if we stick together, we can surely get through this and find our group again.” She gave him an encouraging thumbs-up.
Monster nodded, until he remembered he hadn’t introduced himself yet.
“Oh yes, my name is Monster, I forgot to mention that, but now you know.
And who are you?” he asked next.
She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear to look good for him, as she was very insecure about her own appearance.
“I’m Janine Hiroka, just Janine for you.
So there’s no need to address me formally.” She winked at him, she was really only thinking about looking good, but from Monster’s point of view it looked like she was trying to seduce him.
Monster scrutinized her clothes and appearance to consider her rank; he had learned much about this world after consuming the shadow of this whisper-scale.
She is a fair-skinned, somewhat plump adventurer whose comfortable build gives her a likeable, slightly comical demeanor, which often makes her seem very insecure, even though her curves actually suit her well.
Her most striking feature is her bright turquoise hair, which she wears pinned up at the sides, with two thick strands constantly falling across her face, while her large, green eyes perpetually sparkle with nervousness or excitement.
The moment she feels embarrassed, her cheeks immediately turn a deep pink, which she tries to conceal with a slightly hunched posture and folded arms.
She wears typical, practical adventurer gear made of leather, consisting of a cream-colored linen blouse and a dark brown, tightly laced leather vest that noticeably strains against her curves, causing her to constantly adjust it self-consciously.
She pairs this with sturdy, tight-fitting dark green suede trousers and knee-high leather boots, whose laces tend to come undone due to her clumsy nature.
Her wide, high-waisted belt accentuates her waist and features several small pouches for potions and coins that swing wildly with every step.
As a left-hander, she carries her sword in a leather scabbard at her right hip, the weapon’s crossguard adorned with a small, matte green gemstone perfectly matching her eye color.
Over her left shoulder, she wears a leather shoulder guard that squeaks audibly with every movement, regularly betraying her stealthy approach.
A simple, worn chain with a small lucky charm pendant adorns her neck, which she nervously fiddles with in moments of uncertainty
“Hmm…
are you perhaps an A-Class adventurer?” Monster asked directly.
Janine is a little puzzled, because no one had figured out that she’s an A-Class adventurer, since she looks more like a C-Class adventurer.
“Y-yes, I’m an A-Class adventurer, how did you figure that out so quickly?” She was clearly curious how this teenager could have recognized something like that with just a fleeting glance, while her cheeks were round and deep pink with embarrassment at her being so insistent with her questions.
“Quite simply, you don’t seem like someone who can be easily hurt.
You don’t even have a stain on your clothes.
Someone below A or B-Class would be much more afraid of being alone without their group and would run everywhere just to find them, which would mean they’d be out of breath and have sweat or dirt on their clothes or armor.” He said it as if it were self-evident, even though the chance that he might be wrong was very high, because every person is different and acts differently in different situations.
“Okay…
well, then you must have a good eye, but it could also just have been luck.
Now let’s find our groups,” she said and walked ahead.
Monster followed her.
He tried to appear normal, but deep down he felt a longing to fill his mind with her shadow, to gather even more memories.
He suppressed all of that, just to be able to stay with her.
He didn’t want her to disappear, like the whisper-scale had.