The forest was dead.
Where towering trees had once stretched toward the sky, only blackened trunks remained, their charred branches reaching upward like the skeletal fingers of corpses. A thin veil of smoke drifted across the ruined landscape, carried away by the mourning wind. Ash covered the ground like a layer of gray snow, settling over everything that remained.
In the end, the flames were gone because there was nothing left to burn.
Fortunately, a certain someone had been able to escape the burning forest before he got caught up in his own mess. The black flames were incredibly potent, so much so that their usage had to be limited to prevent them from consuming everything in their path, including innocent bystanders and their wielder.
Dan stood at the edge of the ruined forest, gazing at the aftermath with a distant expression.
His appearance was... less than ideal.
His clothes were torn and stained with mud and blood, while his battered face looked as though it had been used as a punching bag for several hours. Which, in a way, wasn’t too far from the truth.
At least, it had been until his injuries miraculously healed out of nowhere. Now, all he felt was a faint ache in his neck.
So many things had occurred since he had entered this world, but that didn’t stop Dan from being completely bewildered by what had just happened. Just moments ago, he had been locked in a life-or-death battle with the Shadowfiend, yet now he appeared completely fine, as if he hadn’t barely escaped with his life.
It was too scary!
What would have happened if he had kicked the bucket when he hadn’t even given the so-called Game Developers a good smack or two, huh?!
’...Ah. Speaking of which, I supposedly leveled up. Shouldn’t I check it out?’ Absentminded, Dan lingered before opening the Interface and viewed his details:
[Name: Darian Lee]
[Race: Human]
[Class: ■■■■■■■■]
[Level: 8]
[Experience: 755 / 800]
Personal Attributes —
[Strength: 15], [Dexterity: 20], [Constitution: 18] [Perception: 13], [Spirit: 57]
[Allocatable stats: 6]
Mystery: [«Darkness»]
Relic: [Soulless]
"...Eh? Eh? Eehhh? W-what the actual fuck?!"
No wonder he had felt strange and uncomfortable this entire time!
Even someone who was emotionally hopeless or had absolutely no sense of gaming mechanics would realize that something was wrong with this setup! Not only had his Spirit risen to an even more ridiculous level, but his other stats, which had previously been hopelessly low, had increased as well!
Was this the effect of leveling up?
That could be! Leveling up had never produced this kind of unprecedented increase! More importantly, he gained three levels at once which was more than previous absurd level up that jumped two levels and he was even approaching another level up!
He understood that the Shadowfiend had been an extremely powerful mini-boss, but wasn’t this too much?! Not that he was complaining but this was too suspicious!
’I also have six allocatable stats to distribute as well. And... what’s this? A Relic?’
Come to think of it, he had heard something like this back then.
’Is this some kind of category for weapons? Why am I only receiving one now? Or is this a special case?’
Dan frowned as he stared at the unfamiliar entry.
Relic: [Soulless].
Relic Type: Growth-Type 𝐈 Artifact.
Relic Rank: Transcendent
Relic Description: [The final solace left behind by a vile malicious shadow. It wandered without purpose, endlessly seeking a distant longing buried within its hollowed self.]
Runes: [Formless], [Ravenous], [Shadow Curse], [Soul Bond].
†
– [Formless]: Can change into any weapon or form with sublime quality.
– [Ravenous]: Can absorb spiritual items and remnants of slain living creatures to strengthen itself.
– [Shadow Curse]: Infuses its wielder with the power of shadow, granting various powers while gradually corrupting the soul.
– [Soul Bond]: Connected to the wielder’s soul.
"..."
Blinking a couple of times, Dan opened his mouth, then closed it.
He didn’t know what to say.
Perhaps killing that Shadowfiend had been a much bigger deal than he initially thought, because he had also received a Soulbound Artifact after sending it straight to Hell.
And not just any Soulbound Artifact, but one that could continuously strengthen itself!
Could this be the universe’s way of saying, "Congratulations on not dying. Here’s a ridiculously overpowered consolation prize just for you!!"
If so, then this was one heck of a consolation prize! Dan almost fainted after reading the first Rune.
He had been dreading having to exhaust his Spirit Essence every time he conjured something using [Darkness]. But now, that would no longer be a problem.
Instead of relying on [Darkness], he could simply use [Soulless] to create whatever weapon he wanted.
From what was stated in the Rune’s description, the [Formless] aspect specialized exclusively in weapon transformation, which meant he couldn’t use it for phenomenon transformation, making [Dream] of [Darkness] superior in that regard.
But the second Rune of the Ego compensated for this.
If [Soulless] could really absorb slain enemies and strengthen itself while also granting a portion of that power to its wielder, that would mean he could potentially increase his stats indefinitely without needing to "level up."
Wouldn’t that mean another one of his worries had just been eliminated?
’...Whoa. This is amazing!’
For the first time, he felt as though things were finally beginning to go his way.
He had a means of creating weapons without constantly draining his Spirit Essence, an SS weapon that could potentially grow stronger alongside him, opening the door of endless possibilities!
It was almost too good to be true, which was precisely why Dan prepared himself to be disappointed.
As the famous old saying went, there was no such thing as a free lunch, and this was a Transcendent weapon he was talking about. Finally, he read the last Rune, [Shadow Curse], and his mood immediately plummeted.
"Oof."
That certainly put a damper on things. Dan stared at the description for a while, his expression darkening and gradually becoming more complicated.
"Gradually corrupting the soul, huh."
Those were some seriously ominous words. It wasn’t the kind of side effect he could simply shrug off.
After all, what was more important than his soul?
His life?
Well, technically, he supposed his life was more important. But if his soul became corrupted enough, wouldn’t that eventually affect his life anyway?
Dan scratched his cheek and thought, Yeah... let’s not use that one.
At least, not until he understood exactly what "corruption" meant. For all he knew, using the Rune once could cause nothing more than a slight increase in corruption.
Or perhaps every use brought him one step closer to becoming a walking shadow monster.
He had no intention of finding out the hard way.
Next, he focused on his personal attributes and rubbed his chin. What should he do with these stats?
Everything had increased so considerably since the last time that Dan wondered if he should simply dump all his allocatable stats into Spirit like he had done before.
But since the situation had turned out surprisingly well, he could just save those precious allocatable stats for when he needed them most and allow them to accumulate like a growing fortune. After all, there was no reason to spend them simply because he had them.
He had already learned that his circumstances could change drastically within a matter of minutes.
A few extra points might not seem like much now, but they could become the difference between life and death in the right situation.
"Yep. Saving them is definitely the smarter choice."
There was still one thing he couldn’t quite understand.
His attributes had increased like crazy after killing the Shadowfiend, especially his Spirit stats.
[Spirit: 57]
Tilting his head like a penguin, Dan stared at the number.
He remembered exactly where his Spirit had been before. And yet, after the battle, it had shot up like a rocket.
The increase couldn’t simply be explained by the three levels he had gained. Not when his other attributes had also increased. There had to be another reason.
’Could it be because of the Shadowfiend itself?’
Perhaps defeating an enemy far stronger than himself had allowed him to absorb some of its power.
Or maybe... could [Ravenous] have already activated?
If the weapon had been created from the Shadowfiend’s remnants, perhaps some of those remnants had already been absorbed into him, which would certainly explain the strange increase in values.
Sadly, there was no way to confirm any of his suspicions.
"What a headache.’
Dan let out a resigned sigh.
There were simply too many questions and far too few answers. How could he possibly draw any conclusions with such limited knowledge? He had only been in this world for a short time, yet he already had enough mysteries to fill an entire notebook.
Unfortunately, there was no convenient tutorial explaining any of it.
This was an open-world exploration experience, just as [Limbo Corp] had advertised, and he had entered this world with nothing but his own two hands.