’Something is wrong.’
’Terribly wrong.’
’This isn’t normal.’
He had heard of Dungeon Breaks before.
He knew how Gates behaved.
Even unstable ones didn’t simply increase their output for no reason.
Then he felt it.
A deep, heavy pressure.
Completely different from the weak Essence of the creatures surrounding them.
The supervisor’s pupils shrank.
"Stop."
The other two looked at him.
"What?"
"Stop fighting."
"What are you talking about?"
"Run."
The Gate trembled.
The swarm suddenly parted.
The Abyss Creatures began crawling away from the center of the Gate.
Some were crushed beneath something enormous.
A massive limb emerged.
Then another.
The supervisor stared upward.
His mouth went dry.
A gigantic creature slowly forced its way through the Gate.
Its body was covered in dark, hardened flesh.
Its arms were disproportionately long.
Jagged bone protruded from its shoulders and spine.
Its head was crowned by several curved horns.
And its Essence...
The air itself seemed to distort around it.
The supervisor’s System reacted immediately.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[WARNING]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Unidentified Abyss Creature
Rank: D+
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
His blood ran cold.
"D-D+..."
The woman beside him stared in horror.
"H-how?"
The supervisor didn’t answer.
He couldn’t.
D+.
That was several levels above what an E-Rank Gate should have contained.
There was no reason for this creature to be here.
None.
His hands tightened around his weapon.
"Listen to me."
The two E-Ranks looked at him.
"Run."
The young man shook his head.
"But you’re—"
"That’s an order!"
The supervisor pointed toward the street.
"Get to the Association. Call a strike team. Call everyone you can."
"But—"
"I’ll hold it here."
The woman stared at him.
"You can’t fight that thing alone!"
"I know."
His voice became quieter.
"But if I don’t stay here, it’ll reach the civilians."
The creature finally stepped through the Gate.
The pavement cracked beneath its weight.
The supervisor stepped forward.
Essence surged through his body.
He knew he couldn’t win.
He knew that the moment he saw the creature’s rank.
But perhaps he could buy them a few seconds.
He glanced over his shoulder.
"Go!"
The two E-Ranks hesitated.
Then ran.
The D-Rank supervisor faced the monster alone.
His heart pounded.
His legs trembled.
But he didn’t move.
The creature stared at him.
For a brief moment, everything went strangely quiet.
The supervisor raised his weapon.
"Come on..."
The creature moved.
He barely saw it.
One enormous arm swung forward.
The supervisor activated every defensive skill he possessed.
A barrier formed.
Then another.
Then another.
Crack.
The first shattered.
Crack!
The second.
His eyes widened.
"No..."
The third barrier lasted less than a second.
The creature’s fist continued forward.
The supervisor was struck directly.
There was no dramatic struggle.
No final exchange.
No chance to counterattack.
His body was launched across the street like a discarded object.
He struck the pavement.
His weapon fell from his hand.
Blood spread beneath him.
The two E-Ranks stopped running.
They looked back.
And froze.
Their supervisor wasn’t moving.
The D-Rank who had reassured them only moments ago...
Was dead.
The massive creature slowly turned toward them.
The woman covered her mouth.
The young man couldn’t breathe.
Behind the monster, the Gate continued to pulse.
More creatures began emerging.
The woman finally found her voice.
"Run..."
The young man looked at her.
"What?"
She grabbed his arm.
"RUN!"
A few hours later, Eden walked home.
His body felt strangely light.
Too light.
He had spent the better part of the afternoon in the college infirmary, getting patched up after what had technically been his first battle since regression.
Not that anyone knew that.
As far as the healer was concerned, three students had somehow managed to fall down an incredibly violent staircase.
Eden had no idea whether she believed him.
Probably not.
He couldn’t blame her.
Still, nobody had asked too many questions.
That was what mattered.
Eden shoved his hands into his pockets as he walked along the sidewalk, his gaze drifting across the familiar streets.
Everything looked almost exactly as he remembered.
The same convenience stores.
The same apartment buildings.
The same traffic lights.
The same people walking around without a clue about what was coming.
Yet Eden couldn’t stop thinking about one thing.
’Devour.’
His mind replayed the moment over and over.
The red Essence.
The overwhelming force.
Isaac disappearing beneath it.
And most of all, that ridiculous System notification.
Skill acquired.
Eden’s lips curled upward.
An A-Rank skill.
At Level 1.
That alone was absurd.
But the skill’s description bothered him.
Consumes the target and their Essence. A perfect consumption may allow the user to absorb the target’s skill.
"May."
Eden muttered the word under his breath.
"So it’s not guaranteed."
That made sense.
If Devour could simply consume anyone and steal their skills with perfect consistency, it wouldn’t just be an A-Rank skill.
It would be something far beyond that.
Still...
Eden couldn’t help but wonder about the limits.
’How much Essence does it actually consume?’
He remembered the sensation when he used it against Isaac.
It wasn’t just expensive.
The skill had practically devoured a massive chunk of his Essence in a single activation.
He had barely noticed at the time because the adrenaline had been overwhelming everything else.
But now that he was calm...
He could feel it.
His Essence reserves had dropped significantly.
"If I keep using it like that..."
He frowned.
"I’ll run dry."
That could be a serious problem.
Especially inside a Gate.
An Awakened without Essence was basically a normal human with a fancy title.
Eden’s expression became thoughtful.
Then another possibility entered his mind.
’If Devour can steal skills from humans...’
His eyes sharpened.
’Can it do the same to Abyss Creatures?’
The thought alone made his heartbeat quicken.
’Abyss Creatures have skills too.’
’Some of the strongest creatures possessed abilities that could completely change the course of a battle.’
’If Devour could consume them...’
Eden slowly smiled.
"That could get ridiculous."
He immediately imagined himself ripping skills from monsters one after another.
Then he remembered something else.
His smile disappeared.
"The Dungeon Break."
Eden stopped walking for half a second.
He had almost forgotten.
There was supposed to be a Dungeon Break near the city center in the afternoon.
He remembered it clearly from his previous life.
An E-Rank Gate.
Normally nothing worth mentioning.
But the incident had been talked about for days afterward because several people had almost died before the Association managed to contain it.
Eden looked toward the direction of the city center.
’It’s supposed to happen pretty soon.’
His first instinct was obvious.
’I should go there.’
’If the Dungeon Break was already part of the timeline, there would be Abyss Creatures.’
’And Abyss Creatures meant experience.’
’...Potentially skills.’
What might have seemed like a threat to others, was almost like an invitation to Eden.
But Eden quickly dismissed the thought.
"...I’m Level 1."
He sighed.
He had to remind himself.
An A-Rank skill did not magically make his body A-Rank.
His attributes were still pathetic.
Ten in everything.
Even the weakest Abyss Creature could potentially kill him if he made a mistake.
Eden scratched his cheek.
"Going there alone would basically be suicide."
He continued walking.
’I’ll stick to dungeons once I have some levels and skills.’
There was no reason to rush.
He had already gained something much more valuable than a few levels.
A second chance.
An A-Rank skill.
And knowledge of the future.
For once, he could afford to be patient.
At least...
That was what he told himself.
Because less than a minute later, he heard a voice.
"Please!"
Eden stopped.
"Someone help me!"
He slowly turned his head.
A girl was standing farther down the street.
Three boys surrounded her.
She looked about his age.
Brown hair fell messily around her face, partially hiding a pair of striking blue eyes. She was visibly frightened, her hands raised defensively as one of the boys grabbed her arm.
She looked painfully familiar.
But Eden couldn’t place it.
One of the boys shoved her.
"Stop making such a fuss."
"I-I didn’t do anything!"
"You know what you did."
"I don’t!"
Another boy laughed.
"Just shut up and take it."
The girl stumbled.
Her eyes met Eden’s.
"Please!"
Eden blinked.
She was looking directly at him.
"Help me!"
For several seconds, Eden simply stared.
He looked at the girl.
Then at the three boys.
Then back at the girl.
She looked genuinely terrified.
Eden raised his hand.
And gave her a thumbs-up.
"You got this."
The girl froze.
"...What?"
Eden turned around.
"Good luck."
He started walking.
The three boys stared at him.
The girl stared at him.
For perhaps the most confusing five seconds of her life, nobody said anything.
"Wait!"
Eden kept walking.
"Wait!"
He ignored her.
’Not my problem.’
’I’ve got bigger fish to fry.’