Elvis’s eyes fluttered open to the slivers of sunlight filtering through the window. He squinted slightly, feeling strange and warm all over his body, as though he had suddenly grown stronger.
Suddenly, a translucent blue panel sprang into his sight.
[Your Devourer Class has leveled up!]
[Level: 0 → 1]
[All Devourer Attributes Increased.]
[+2 Devourer Strength]
[+2 Devourer Agility]
[+2 Devourer Constitution]
[+0 Devourer Intelligence]
[+4 Devourer Essence]
[+0 Devourer Free Attributes]
Elvis froze at the sight, alarm bells blaring in his head. Leveling up without hunting while lacking the Intelligence attribute was a major trait of a Devourer. And this unearned power came with a consequence—madness.
Elvis hurriedly opened his system.
────────────────────
[AWAKENER SYSTEM]
└──?DEVOURER SYSTEM?
────────────────────
[Name: Elvis Veyne]
[Race: Human] || ?Race: Human?
[Bloodline: None] || ?Bloodline: None?
[Class: Poison Heresy] || ?Devourer Class: Blood Warrior (Flawed)?
[Rank: Acolyte] || ?Devourer Rank: Acolyte?
[Level: 0 (0%)] || ?Devourer Level: 1 (20%)?
[Skills]: [Mana Corrosion], [Poison Artificer], [Poison Immunity]
[Spirit Beast]: [Human]
└── ?Devourer Beast?: ?None?
────────────────────
[Strength: 1] || ?Devourer Strength: 5?
[Agility: 2] || ?Devourer Agility: 5?
[Constitution: 1] || ?Devourer Constitution: 5?
[Intelligence: 5] || ?Devourer Intelligence: 0?
[Mana: 5/5] || ?Essence: 9/9?
────────────────────
• [Corruption: 0%]
• [Free Attributes: 0]
────────────────────
"It has all been reflected. Am I walking the path of madness? Moreover, why didn’t I get Free Attributes? I thought the Devourer System only affected the Intelligence attribute. The rest were supposed to remain untouched," Elvis muttered with a downcast expression.
Finally, he huffed and crawled out of bed. It was still early.
After taking a shower, he got dressed in pajamas and ordered two pairs of budget-class clothes—a tracksuit and a casual outfit—for his outing.
Ten minutes later, he received a call from the delivery personnel, notifying him that they were outside.
Opening the door, Elvis strode through the passageway but paused at the sight of Caelithia sitting at the dining table.
She was also staring at him.
"Good morning," Elvis greeted.
"Morning. I saw the sudden change in your system," Caelithia said.
"Give me a moment. Let me get my things before we talk," Elvis shushed her before heading for the door.
He collected his package and paid the man waiting downstairs before returning to find Caelithia now sitting on the couch in the living room.
He sat on the opposite couch before switching on the television.
Then he turned to Caelithia.
"So, did you feel anything when you met the person downstairs?" Caelithia asked.
"Am I supposed to feel something?" Elvis replied with uncertainty. This chapter is updated first at g.com.
"Yes—symptoms of madness. You should feel a fatal attraction toward the skull, seemingly due to its connection to the Intelligence attribute. And not only would you feel this fatal attraction toward Awakeners, but even toward unawakened humans. For unawakened humans, the absorption will always end up killing them," Caelithia explained.
"Oh!" Elvis nodded in understanding. "But I felt nothing, which is excellent. This means the Awakener System might have negated the effect of the Devourer System."
"Or your stacked systems are still pushing back the madness, since your Intelligence attribute is still very high. The increasing Corruption tab is the obvious sign. If that’s the case, then leveling up your Awakener System should keep you sane," Caelithia retorted.
"You never struck me as a meticulous person." Elvis chuckled.
Then he continued, "I thought of that when I realized I didn’t test positive for the Devourer System. But I want to wait and see if I develop any symptoms before we decide to level up my Awakener System, or even register as an Awakener. You know, I’ve already told Miss Maria that I’m not an Awakener. Let’s not complicate things."
"Okay, that’s fine. But you should be quick. I want to see what a dungeon is like. Now, I’m going out to see this world and confirm whether my ill-fated life is over. Well, my Class is the bane of ill fate." Caelithia waved her hand and left for her room.
Meanwhile, Elvis froze, feeling a bit apprehensive toward her.
Before, if he had taken her complaints about misfortune as a fallacy, after seeing ’Pilgrim of Misfortune’ in her status, he knew her misfortune might be genuine.
Now, all he could pray for was that it didn’t affect him.
Shaking his head to dismiss the overthought, he went to his room to change. Then he left to get an in-person feel of Vinegard City.
Strolling through the city of Vinegard, Elvis found that everything wasn’t all that different from Earth, with some things lagging behind in development while others were far ahead of Earth’s time.
The few sleek battlesuits he spotted were by far more advanced than any armor he had seen on Earth.
However, there was one minor detail he noticed—the buildings and structures were extremely solid.
After he was done exploring, he tried some of the local food. Life wasn’t so bad.
Time went by as Elvis adapted to Axaeris. Caelithia blended in easily, going out every day and returning late. Sometimes, she pestered him about registering as an Awakener, but he ignored her.
However, his Devourer System never stopped leveling, feeding power down his throat day by day with each growth.
On the third day in Axaeris, his Devourer System reached Level 2, bringing all his attributes to a new height except for his Intelligence attribute and Free Attributes. He could feel the raw strength coursing through his veins.
His Corruption tab also reached fifteen percent, but nothing happened.
On the ninth day, his Devourer System reached Level 3, with his strength increasing alongside it. However, his Corruption tab spiked to a shocking fifty percent.
On that day, apart from Caelithia, Elvis suddenly found himself seeing a mouth-watering green liquid resembling a resting pond inside the skulls of everyone he passed. The green liquid held an almost irresistible temptation for him.
He even began hallucinating when he saw other humans, seeing them transform into scary monsters that were about to lunge at him. He swiftly returned home.
It was the cue that made him conclude that he couldn’t escape the world of Awakeners and needed to act fast.
The next day, Elvis knocked on Caelithia’s door early in the morning.
Caelithia opened it, still dressed in her pajamas.
"I guess you came to your senses, right?" She smirked at him.
Elvis ignored her annoying smirk and answered, "Get dressed. We need to go to the Awakener Guild and register as an Awakener."