[A mana core has successfully formed.]
[The user has obtained an Undying Core, Level 1.]
“I am still alive!”
Zeph was truly awake again, lying on the floor as he clearly saw his own body stretched out there.
No way! No fucking way! What the hell is this? How is this even possible?!
He woke up with his head separated from his body. But…
He tried to move, and his body slowly turned before settling on its back.
That movement made the dark creature still standing there turn and face Zeph’s body, which had begun to stir.
Damn it! He had to run. Now.
Zeph’s body pushed itself into a sitting position, then twisted backward as his hands reached out, trying to grab his own head.
It was hard. It was not easy. His hands trembled, struggling even to grasp his own head. He was seeing from a skewed view, his vision disoriented, as if the world no longer aligned with his body.
He gritted his teeth and tried to roll his head using his tongue, pushing against the cold floor and nudging it inch by inch until it finally tipped and rolled toward him. At the very last second, his shaking hands managed to catch it.
He had it. He had his own head.
Without hesitation, he lifted it, and pressed it back onto his body.
He had no idea how this was happening or what kind of process was taking place, but he could clearly feel his neck reconnecting to his body at an incredible speed.
He did not think twice. He forced himself to stand. A massive surge of energy flooded through him, powerful and overwhelming. And then he bolted.
Run!
But… In that brief moment, Zeph knew with certainty that the dark creature had already shot to his left side and caught up to him.
No way!
A brutal strike came from the creature, the blunt hilt of its sword slamming into his head.
Zeph could barely feel anything. He was thrown violently against the wall, his head crashing hard against the surface. After that, the world around him slowly faded into darkness once more.
[Fatal damage confirmed. The host has perished once again.]
[Cause of Death: Slain in direct combat against a superior hostile entity.]
[Evaluation: High-intensity lethal confrontation detected.]
[Undying Core Response: Core restoration output significantly increased. The Undying Core has grown stronger through extreme destruction.]
[Level Up!]
[Level 2]
[Temporary Buff Acquired: Accelerated Reflexes and Speed Enhancement in Limited Duration.]
Zeph’s eyes snapped open again.
He sucked in a sharp breath, his chest tight, air refusing to fill his lungs properly. He had collapsed onto the floor in the exact same spot, the dark creature still standing before him as if it had never moved, as if it was fully prepared to kill him again the moment he rose.
The creature’s sword shifted.
But this time, Zeph could see it more clearly. The motion felt slower, sharper in detail. He could almost predict where the blade would strike.
He gritted his teeth. He had to dodge this.
Now!
The sword came down.
Yet even with the surge in speed, even with his sharpened reflexes, the blade moved faster than his body could respond.
In the final instant, Zeph’s vision suddenly lifted upward. The world tilted strangely as his head was sliced clean from his body once again.
Darkness swallowed everything.
[Fatal damage confirmed. The host has perished once again.]
[Level Up!]
[Level 3]
[Fatal damage confirmed. The host has perished once again.]
[Level Up!]
[Level 4]
[Fatal damage confirmed. The host has perished once again.]
[Level Up!]
[Level 5]
Zeph was cut down and slaughtered by the dark creature again and again. Every time he opened his eyes and managed to gather himself, he tried to dodge, tried to move faster, tried to survive. But the monster’s movements were far too quick, far too precise.
[Fatal damage confirmed. The host has perished once again.]
[Level Up!]
[Level 6]
Just what level was this monster?
Judging from its speed and overwhelming strength, it had to be in the teens. Maybe even in the twenties. This was the kind of being that ten normal humans together would never be able to defeat.
And yet, on the other side of this endless slaughter, Zeph knew something else.
He was leveling up every time he died.
Technically, he could just let himself be killed over and over. He could allow the creature to butcher him until he reached Level 30 or higher, until crushing this monster became easy.
But he remembered the warning clearly. He understood it too well.
This blessing, this Undying Core, would punish him the moment he even thought about surrendering on purpose or looking for the easy path. If he tried to exploit it, if he tried to cheat the system, there was a real chance he would die for good and never return.
Still… He had not actually tried it.
What was the harm in testing it just once?
[Fatal damage confirmed. The host has perished once again.]
[Level Up!]
[Level 7]
And yet nothing changed.
Each time Zeph woke up, the monster struck him again. A blade through his chest. A thrust into his throat. A brutal slash across his neck.
Worse than that, he truly felt the pain.
Yes, death came almost instantly. But the moment before it was torture. Every single time he was killed, it felt as if his soul was being torn apart. The suffering did not stop at his flesh.
Whenever death claimed him, all the memories, all the fear, all the buried trauma he had carried his entire life resurfaced at once inside him. It was not just punishment for his body. It was punishment for his mind.
Zeph refused to just lie there and be tortured by this fucking dark creature.
The sword slammed hard against the wall, and a violent explosion burst out as the surface shattered into pieces.
But this time… Zeph had already rolled to the other side of the area.
He had finally avoided the monster’s killing blow.
He crouched there, trying to steady himself and find his balance.
Pain still throbbed through him. His vision swayed as if his eyes were struggling to fully register the world around him. The dizziness had not faded. If anything, it pressed harder against his mind.
And yet, at the same time, Zeph knew something had changed.
He had something now. Something he had never possessed before.
Power.
It flowed wildly through his body, rushing in violent waves. His senses felt sharper. He could smell the dust and blood in the air more clearly. He could hear distant cracks and tremors beyond the walls. He could see every small shift in the monster’s stance.
His heart pounded hard in his chest, pumping as if it wanted to burst free. He could almost feel his blood racing through his veins, every cell inside his body surging with fierce energy.
Zeph clenched his fists.
The monster had already turned back toward him. But it did not attack immediately. It simply stood there, facing him. And waiting?
Zeph lowered his stance, prepared to move the instant the creature made any kind of action.
There was no sound from it. No breath. No growl. Nothing.
It had a humanoid body, yet who knew what truly hid behind that dark mask and heavy helm. Who knew what kind of thing he was really facing. And more importantly, how was he supposed to kill it?
Then Zeph noticed something. There was a deep gash on the left side of the creature’s abdomen, as if a chunk of flesh had been torn away by something powerful.
This monster was injured.
Someone had wounded it before. Someone had struck it hard enough to send it crashing onto his balcony.
From outside, Zeph could hear explosions, distant screams, the sound of destruction echoing through the night. The larger battle was still raging.
But he also understood something painfully clear.
No one was coming to save him.
If this continued, the monster would keep killing him over and over again.
Unless he killed it first.
He gritted his teeth.
At the same moment, the creature lunged forward and slashed its sword toward him.
Zeph could see the movement more clearly now.
Left!
He threw himself to the right as the blade slammed violently into the floor, stone cracking under the impact. He pushed off to counterattack, but the sword was already coming again, impossibly fast.
Too fast.
This time, the blade cut clean through his body, splitting him in two before he could even react.
[Fatal damage confirmed. The host has perished once again.]
[Level Up!]
[Level 8]
He had no idea how much time passed each time he died. Seconds? Minutes? It did not matter. All he truly knew was the suffering he endured every single time it happened.
Again and again.
He had reached Level 8.
And it still was not enough.
Zeph opened his eyes once more, finding his body fully restored, fused back together as if it had never been torn apart.
The dark creature stood not far from him, its back slightly turned as if it were about to leave the room. But the moment Zeph began to stir, it stopped.
It noticed.
Zeph shot to his feet without hesitation. The creature reacted instantly and lunged toward him again.
He sprinted toward the staircase, pushing off hard in a desperate attempt to gain distance.
The monster chased him without slowing down. It smashed through the nearby door, shattering glass into a rain of sharp fragments, then launched forward with terrifying speed, its sword cutting down toward him.
Zeph twisted away, rolling sharply to the right. The blade crashed into a wooden chair, splitting it clean in half. The impact carried through into a cabinet behind it, tearing through wood and sending splinters and debris exploding across the room.
But the monster did not stop.
It kept coming.
Zeph grabbed another chair and hurled it at the creature with all his strength. The sword flashed once, and the chair was sliced apart midair as if it were made of paper.
Before he could react, the monster surged forward again and drove its blade straight into Zeph’s abdomen.
The pain was unbearable.
It felt as if molten metal had been shoved into his stomach, burning and tearing through flesh and muscle at the same time. His breath vanished. His vision shook violently. He could feel the steel inside him.
Worse of all, he did not die immediately. His strength drained rapidly. His knees weakened, but he forced himself to stay upright.
“You’re not killing me that easily, you bastard!” Zeph roared.
With a desperate snarl, he locked his arms around the monster’s arm and grabbed the blade, gripping it tightly despite the blood pouring from his hands. He tried to hold it in place, trying to keep it from pulling free.
But the creature moved with brutal force. It slammed Zeph backward, ripping the sword loose from his body. Then, without pause, it drove him into the floor with crushing strength.
The impact shook the room.
Everything went dark once again.
[Fatal damage confirmed. The host has perished once again.]
[Level Up!]
[Level 9]
Zeph opened his eyes again.
He was lying flat on the floor, but the monster was already standing right in front of him.
Move!
He rolled sharply to the side just as the creature’s blade came crashing down. The sword struck the floor with a violent impact, cracking the tiles and sending dust into the air.
Zeph did not hesitate. He scrambled to his feet and sprinted, weaving past broken furniture and shattered wood. Another heavy strike landed behind him. He did not look back.
He ran toward the rear corridor and shoved open the back door, nearly tearing it off its hinges as he forced his way through.
The monster followed.
Of course it did.
But at the very last second, something changed.
The creature lunged forward to close the distance. And the ground beneath it gave way.
The floor collapsed with a loud crack as the monster plunged straight down into a concealed maintenance shaft. The massive body dropped halfway into the opening.
Its upper half remained above ground, but its lower body was trapped below, wedged tightly inside the narrow water control chamber beneath the house. The creature’s wounded abdomen caught painfully against the broken concrete edge.
It was stuck.
Zeph stood a few meters away, breathing hard, his chest rising and falling rapidly.
“Nou walked right into my trap,” he said between heavy breaths.
The monster struggled, but the deep wound in its abdomen pressed hard against the concrete edge, pinning it in place. Every attempt to force itself free only wedged it tighter between the pipes and the fractured floor.
Zeph reached to the side and grabbed the long-handled sledgehammer.
A thin smile curved on his lips.
“It’s my turn to hit you.”
He rushed forward and swung the hammer with everything he had, bringing it down hard against the monster’s exposed side.