"Even the bravest man needs a map when he walks into the lion’s den." — Who gives a fuck?
Three minutes.
That’s how long Micah stood outside the academy walls, staring at the ruins of the city.
The city looked like the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse.
Buildings leaned against each other like drunk men trying to stand upright. Roads had been split open, their concrete slabs pushed up at weird angles by tree roots that had been growing underneath for years.
Cars sat abandoned in the middle of intersections, their doors ripped off, their windows shattered.
Some houses still had a window or two hanging on a single hinge, swinging back and forth whenever the wind blew.
The smell was also something he couldn’t ignore. The place smelled like rotten eggs.
Micah pulled the grey hood over his head and adjusted the backpack on his good shoulder.
His left shoulder was still wrapped in the bloody bandage.
He stepped into the ruins.
The first thing he noticed was how quiet it was. There were no sound of engines, no voices nor sounds of birds.
Just the low groan of wind passing through broken windows and the occasional scrape of metal against concrete .
His Beast Analysis Talent was already active at this point. Faint energy signatures flickered at the edges of his vision.
Most were far away. Low-level. Moving in patterns that told him they were pack animals patrolling their territory.
He didn’t want pack animals — at least for now. He couldn’t attrack a pack yet, because he wasn’t that strong. He wanted strays, isolated ones and most definitely the weak ones.
He was smart about that, trying to play it safe.
His predecessor’s memories told him that mutant hounds usually hunted in pairs out here in the outer sectors. They were about the size of large dogs, fast, and sat at roughly twelve percent Flux Unlock.
Two percent above him. Not great, but manageable.
He just needed to find one alone. He would be able to survive a pack of that attacking him at once.
He moved slow and he was wise enough to keep his back against walls. He stepped over broken glasses instead of on it. Every sound made him stop and listen.
Twenty minutes in, he heard it.
A soft and low growl coming from inside what used to be a convenience store. The roof had caved in on one side, leaving a narrow gap between the rubble and the collapsed ceiling.
There was something inside, still living and still eating.
Micah crouched behind a rusted dumpster and activated Beast Analysis.
A red silhouette appeared through the wall. Four legs, long spine and somehow short.
"Oh wow! Just an hound." There was no other signatures nearby.
"Alone. Very good!"
He pulled the combat knife from his belt, then he crept toward the gap in the wall.
The hound crouched over something dead. A rat, maybe. It had its back to him. Saliva hung from its jaw in long strings as it tore into the carcass.
Micah didn’t wait for it to finish eating.
He lunged!
VROOOM!!!
The knife came down hard toward the back of its skull.
But hounds have good ears. This one’s twitched at the last second. It snapped its head around and the blade missed the skull, sinking into its shoulder instead.
SHLCK!
The hound screamed. It was a high-pitched screech that hurt his ears. It bucked wildly beneath him, flailing desperately as it fought to escape.
Its scaled tail whipped around and caught Micah on the left forearm.
Micah hissed through his teeth.
The hound bucked again, trying to throw him off. Micah grabbed its skull with both hands and twisted hard.
CRACK!
The body went limp.
He knelt there for a moment, breathing hard, knife still buried in the thing’s shoulder.
Then the system spoke.
[Ding!]
[Physical injury detected. Source: Mutant Hound, 12% Flux Unlock.]
[Injury severity: Minor. Enemy strength slightly exceeds host baseline.]
[Low-tier Gacha pull granted.]
Micah exhaled. ’"About time."
He mentally grabbed the golden roulette wheel and slammed the draw.
The wheel spun faster and faster, the gold, blue, and white blending into a blur. It clicked past several sections, slowed down, and locked onto a small, glowing blue orb.
The orb shattered.
[Item Acquired: Basic Flux Enhancer (Consumable, Low-Tier)]
[Basic Flux Enhancer: Concentrated vial of purified Flux Energy. Rapidly accelerates ambient Flux absorption. Expands meridians and fortifies muscular tissue. Absorption rate: 10x faster than standard academy meditation. Duration: 2 hours.]
A small glass vial materialized in his palm. The liquid inside glowed a soft electric blue. It was warm against his skin. Almost pulsing, like it had a heartbeat of its own.
Micah stared at it for a second.
"Bottoms up."
He pulled the cork with his teeth and swallowed the whole thing in one gulp.
His entire system changed immediately. Every muscle contracted at the same time, making him stiffen from head to toe.
His back arched, and he clenched his jaw so hard his teeth felt like they might crack. Dark veins stood out beneath his skin, throbbing as a burning sensation seemed to spread through his body.
Then the burning moved inward.
He could feel it. It was as if something invisible was pouring into him from the air itself. The Flux Energy in the atmosphere rushed toward his body.
"Holy Fuckkk!"
He dropped to his knees. His fingers dug into the dirt. His skin broke out in a black sweat that smelled funny. It was his body purging junk. It was pushing out every impurity, every weakness, every microscopic defect in his cells.
Two hours.
Two straight hours of pain so bad he couldn’t think, breathe or do anything except kneel there in the dirt next to the dead hound.
When it finally stopped, Micah opened his eyes.
The world looked so different. His visions were sharper and clearer. He could hear sounds of things at a far distance.
His body felt lighter and his muscles felt denser.
He pulled up his stats.
[Flux Unlock: 15%]
’Fifteen. Up from ten.’
Real progress. Two hours had given him what most recruits spent a full month of academy meditation to achieve.
But then the numbers settled in his head and his face dropped.
Dexter was past 40%. Myra was right behind him at 40%.
Fifteen was still garbage and definitely still at the bottom of the barrel.
"Not even close," he thought, clenching his fist.
He stood up, wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand, and looked deeper into the ruins.
The buildings got taller toward the center of the city. His Beast Analysis was already picking up stronger signatures. Mid-tier beasts. And some of them were big.
That was where the real prey lived. The ones worth bleeding for.
Micah adjusted his backpack, gripped his knife, and walked forward into the dark.
In no time, he was swallowed up by the dark!