It was late morning, around 10:30 AM. Sunlight filtered through the untamed pine forest behind the West Annex dormitory, just outside the perimeter fence.
Damp soil, towering pines, dead leaves, cold wind, and silence. No mana-cameras, no patrols. Under one of the pine canopies where the ground was dry-ish and carpeted in old needles, Lucian was squatting, gathering dead leaves and a few small brittle twigs.
Don't let his age or his habit of reading novels fool you. He was, after all, a 27-year-old young man trapped in the body of an 18-year-old boy. With all that life experience behind him, even a low-worker past life had been enough to get a small tepee of twigs standing neatly over the tinder.
Beads of sweat dripped from his short, slightly disheveled dark charcoal-black hair. His whole attire, the usual standard black-and-silver academy blazer, was wrinkled and rumpled.
"Huff." He took a deep breath, pulled out a lighter, and touched the flame to the tinder. A small bed of glowing embers. Not a roaring fire, just heat. Simple heat.
He placed two large flat stones on opposite sides of the embers, then waited for them to warm up while checking the sack he had carried out.
"Perfect," he nodded, glancing at the tepee. It wasn't exactly perfect, but it was standing. "Perhaps I should play more games like Sun of the Forest."
Once the stones were hot enough, he pulled out the pale-gray marrow bone. It was rough and porous, with jagged splintered edges where the cleaver had split it open. A slick, wet sheen of blood and miasma residue still coated the surface, and it felt greasy even to the touch.
"Ugh..." His lips twitched. But his stomach rumbled, and the sight of that marrow slowly, before his eyes, became something deeply appetizing, something he could almost taste just looking at it. His throat moved in a swallow before his mind caught up.
"I just hope it's enough, and from a different beast," he muttered. "Let's season it first." He pinched some salt and rubbed it into the cut surface, then laid the bone across the stones. He pulled out the second one and did the same.
Now he waited, looking around.
Come to think of it, this is the place Arthur trained? Lucian's ash-gray eyes, hooded and half-lidded, swept the surroundings. According to the novel, this place, the Backwoods, was where Arthur, the original protagonist, secretly trained, where he met the hermit who taught him a technique called Dawn's Reach.
As for why Lucian had chosen this spot?
Hoping to run into the hermit was a long shot, practically zero. It was just quiet here, Lucian thought, glancing at the marrow bone. He had only wanted to roast the meat in peace. He had no real intention of meeting any hermit. Arthur had managed it through sheer diligence, after all, the usual protagonist thing.
The unappetizing purple marrow began to soften under the heat, then bubbled as tiny globs of golden-yellow fat oozed out along the split channel.
Lucian closed his eyes, nose twitching, breathing in the rich, smoky, buttery smell of it, like beef bone over an open fire. When he opened them again, they were bright with excitement and his mouth had fallen slightly open.
"I think this is perfect timing." Without hesitation, and with a slight grunt at the heat, he bit straight into it. "Hmm!" Soft, creamy, almost spreadable.
A bit salty, buttery, savory. Then, while he was still chewing, a screen flashed in front of him:
[Digesting Function is triggered!]
Ingested: Iron-Tusk Swine Marrow (Rank 1)
[New Trait Engraved: Dense Bone Frame (Tier 1)]
Right at that moment, his clavicles and knuckles all lit up at once, and beneath the skin they felt like solid cold metal.
Another passive skill! He smiled, wiping the buttery liquid from his mouth, and looked down.
And it's Iron-Tusk Swine? His brows furrowed at the screen. Isn't this the Hollow Beast Arthur killed?
In the novel Dawn of the Sword, the Iron-Tusk Swine was a low-tier fodder monster, a boar-like subterranean beast the size of a minivan.
That was about as much as he could remember. For now, his attention shifted to the skill description.
[DENSE BONE FRAME (TIER 1)]
TYPE: PASSIVE / PERMANENT
EFFECT:
- Skeletal density and mineral composition increased by 100%.
- Bones gain the tensile strength of tempered structural iron.
- Immune to micro-fractures, stress cracks, and joint dislocation from heavy landings or blocking blunt strikes.
- Overall physical body weight naturally increases by +12 kg (compressed bone mass, not fat).
Wow. His eyes narrowed. That looked good. He wanted to test it, but first, his attention moved again.
Profile?
A new screen flashed:
[THE GLUTTON'S CRUCIBLE]
Host: Lucian Croft
Vessel: Rank 1 (Ember)
Phantom Starvation: 65%
His eyes went straight to the Phantom Starvation. Down 10%. He could already feel his mind sharpening, and he let out a slow breath of relief.
"So I really do need expensive meat," he said with a wry smile, shaking his head at the thought of the cost. But that train of thought died quickly when he looked at the second bone. "Probably the same beast, right?"
It looked the same, so once he finished the first marrow, he started on the second. No Digesting Function this time, just:
Phantom Starvation: 40%
A drop of 25%. That was more than the first one. He frowned at that for a moment. The only difference between the two was the order, one was first, one was second.
Is it that? Or... His thoughts drifted back to the skill screen. Maybe getting the passive trait burned through some of the Phantom Starvation?
That seemed like the most reasonable explanation. Time to test it.
He pulled out the last marrow bone.
It was darker, more of a tannish brown compared to the earlier two. Definitely a different beast. Lucian's eyes sharpened with anticipation.
He rubbed salt into the surface of the much thicker, shorter bone, more like a baseball bat in shape, laid it across the stones, and waited.
"Shall we test the new passive?" While the bone heated, Lucian stood, faced the trunk in front of him, and took a deep breath.
BANG!
He threw the punch. The result? His hand sank into the wood, no, punched clean through it, and he felt nothing. Not even a sting.
Even Lucian, used to living in a normal body, went briefly wide-eyed watching it happen.
Holy...