First Morph Pattern Generated.
The words remained inside Drake’s mind like a brand burned directly into his thoughts.
He knelt in the underground valley, staring at the empty ground where the monster’s corpse had been only moments ago.
There was no blood left.
No bones.
No flesh.
Not even a single strand of pale hide remained.
The relic had consumed everything.
Drake slowly raised his right hand.
The crimson symbol on the back of his hand faded beneath his skin, leaving it looking ordinary once more.
That somehow made it worse.
If there had been a scar, a wound, anything visible, he could have convinced himself that this was real in a way his mind could understand.
Instead, the thing inside him had hidden itself perfectly.
“…You’re inside me.” The cold voice answered.
Correct.
Drake flinched.
Even though he had expected it, hearing the response still made his blood run cold.
“What are you?” A pause followed.
Then— Information Restricted.
Drake let out a bitter laugh.
“Of course it is.” He forced himself to stand, though his legs trembled beneath him.
The memories had returned now, but they still felt fractured.
He remembered the tomb.
He remembered the crimson eyes.
He remembered the living black organism striking his hand and invading his body.
Most of all, he remembered the pain.
His fingers curled into a fist.
“Did you save me?” Correct.
“Why?” Host survival required.
“For what?” Silence.
Then the relic spoke again.
Consume.
Archive.
Evolve.
The words were simple, but something about them made Drake’s skin crawl.
This thing did not think like a human.
It did not care about kindness or cruelty.
It preserved him because he was useful.
A vessel.
A host.
Drake looked toward the dark tunnel where the victorious Bonefang Ravager had disappeared.
His stomach twisted as he remembered the corpse vanishing into crimson particles.
“…That monster.
You copied it?” Incorrect.
The answer surprised him.
Drake frowned.
“Then what did you do?” The biological sample was not copied.
It was archived.
A strange pressure gathered behind his eyes.
Not pain.
Knowledge.
A faint instinctive understanding unfolded inside his mind.
The relic had not created an illusion.
It had not stored a simple image of the beast.
It had taken the creature’s body, bloodline, mana structure, nervous system, behavior, instincts, and evolutionary memory, then compressed all of it into something called a Morph Pattern.
A complete biological blueprint.
A beast preserved within him.
Drake swallowed.
“…And I can use it?” Correct.
“How?” The relic did not answer with words.
Instead, warmth spread through his right arm.
The sensation moved from his hand to his chest, then deeper, touching something he had never felt before.
Mana.
His own mana.
Weak and damaged, but present.
Drake’s breath caught.
He had failed his Awakening Ceremony.
No profession had appeared.
No mana circuit had opened.
He had been declared ordinary.
Yet now, for the first time in his life, he could feel mana moving inside him.
Thin.
Fragile.
But real.
A command surfaced in his thoughts.
Not spoken by the relic.
Not taught.
Remembered.
Bonefang Ravager.
Drake staggered back.
“No…” The relic spoke.
Morph Pattern available.
His heartbeat quickened.
He should have refused.
Every reasonable thought told him not to trust the parasite inside him.
He knew nothing about it.
He didn’t know what price this power demanded, what it would do to his body, or whether he would still be human afterward.
But then Luna’s face appeared in his mind.
Pale.
Sleeping.
Fading.
Drake clenched his jaw.
Power ruled the world.
Noble families crushed commoners because they had it.
Guilds decided life and death because they had it.
Doctors kept Luna alive only because Drake could pay for it.
Without power, he would always be hunted, beaten, and forced to crawl.
His right hand trembled.
“…If this kills me, I’ll hate you.” Host death is inefficient.
Despite himself, Drake almost laughed.
“That’s your reassurance?” No answer came.
He closed his eyes.
The command waited inside him like a locked door.
Drake took a slow breath.
Then opened it.
“Transform.” The relic responded instantly.
Morph Pattern accepted.
Pain erupted through his body.
Drake screamed.
His bones cracked all at once, the sound echoing through the underground valley like dry branches snapping underfoot.
His spine bent violently as something ancient and merciless took hold of his body and began reshaping it.
His arms lengthened.
His shoulders widened.
His ribs expanded.
Muscles tore apart beneath his skin, only to rebuild themselves thicker and denser.
His fingers spasmed, nails blackening before extending into curved claws.
His jaw pushed forward with a sickening crunch.
Teeth shattered inside his mouth, then new ones erupted from his gums, longer and sharper than before.
He collapsed onto all fours.
White armor spread across his body.
It was not fur.
Not scales.
Something harder.
Pale plates grew from beneath his skin, locking into place along his back, shoulders, and limbs like natural bone.
Jagged spikes rose along his spine.
A long muscular tail tore free from the base of his back, whipping instinctively through the air to balance his changing form.
Drake tried to scream again.
Only a monstrous growl came out.
The transformation lasted less than a minute.
It felt like an eternity.
Then, as suddenly as it had begun, the pain vanished.
Drake stood in silence.
No.
Not stood.
Crouched.
His hands were no longer hands.
They were massive clawed forelimbs pressed against the black stone.
His breathing came deep and slow from a powerful chest.
His body felt heavier, longer, stronger.
The world had changed.
Darkness was no longer darkness.
He could see everything.
Tiny cracks in distant stone.
The faint movement of insects beneath broken pillars.
The flow of mana particles drifting through the air like glowing dust.
His ears twitched.
Water dripped somewhere far away.
A stone settled in a tunnel behind him.
His own heartbeat thundered in his chest.
Then his nose caught the world.
Blood.
Dust.
Stone.
Old death.
Ancient mana.
The fading scent of the victorious Alpha.
And something else.
Prey.
Drake’s claws dug into the ground.
A low growl rumbled from his throat.
The thought did not feel like his own.
Hunt.
His muscles tensed.
The Bonefang Ravager’s instincts surged through him with terrifying force.
He knew how to move this body.
He knew how to crouch, leap, bite, tear, and kill.
He knew where to strike another Ravager to cripple it.
He knew how to stalk from downwind, how to listen for weakness in breathing, how to smell fear.
None of it had been learned.
It had been inherited.
Evolutionary memory.
The relic had given him more than a body.
It had given him the beast’s nature.
For a brief moment, Drake nearly lost himself inside it.
The underground valley no longer looked like a ruin.
It looked like territory.
The tunnels were paths.
The scents were trails.
Anything weaker was prey.
Anything stronger was a challenge.
His crimson eyes turned toward the tunnel where the victorious Alpha had gone.
His lips pulled back, revealing rows of fangs.
Challenge.
Kill.
Devour.
“No.” The word came out as a deep snarl.
Drake slammed one claw into the stone hard enough to crack it.
“I am not a monster.” The instincts pushed back.
Alpha.
Territory.
Hunger.
“I said no!” He struck the ground again.
Pain traveled up his forelimb, sharp and grounding.
Slowly, his human thoughts resurfaced.
Luna.
Hospital.
Escape.
Survive.
The savage urges retreated, though they did not disappear.
They waited beneath his mind like a predator beneath still water.
Drake breathed heavily.
“…That’s dangerous.” The relic answered.
Instinct synchronization incomplete.
“You could’ve warned me.” Warning would not alter outcome.
Drake stared at nothing for a moment.
Then he growled.
“I hate you.” No response.
Somehow, the silence felt smug.
He turned toward a pool of clear water gathered between the stones and moved toward it on four limbs.
The first few steps were awkward, but only for a moment.
The beast’s memory guided his balance.
His tail shifted naturally.
His claws found grip without thought.
By the time he reached the water, he was no longer stumbling.
He looked down.
A Bonefang Ravager stared back from the reflection.
Pale armor covered its powerful body.
Jagged dorsal spikes ran along its spine.
Its mouth was filled with serrated teeth, and crimson eyes glowed with frightening intelligence.
Drake stared at his reflection for a long time.
This was him.
And not him.
His heart pounded.
Fear should have been the only thing he felt.
Instead, beneath the terror, there was something else.
Power.
For the first time in his life, Drake understood what it meant to possess strength that others could not ignore.
A bitter memory surfaced.
Leon Valerius looking down at him in the market.
A noble’s lazy smile.
A boot crushing the medicine Drake had worked months to buy.
A voice filled with amusement.
“A beggar dares raise his voice at me?” Drake’s claws curled into the stone.
If Leon saw him now…
The thought frightened him.
Because part of him wanted that.
Part of him wanted to see the noble’s arrogance turn into fear.
He shook his head, forcing the thought away.
“No.
Luna first.” The relic stirred.
Primary emotional anchor acknowledged.
Drake narrowed his crimson eyes.
“Stop naming everything.” No response.
He turned away from the water and lifted his head.
The world unfolded through scent and sound.
There.
Far above.
Fresh air.
Faint.
Almost impossible to notice as a human.
But to the Bonefang Ravager, it was a trail.
Drake’s ears twitched.
A narrow path climbed along the far side of the underground valley, hidden behind broken stone and thick roots.
He had passed it earlier without noticing.
In human form, he would never have seen it.
Now, every detail stood out.
The scratches along the rock.
The air moving through cracks.
The faint scent of moss carried from somewhere above.
An exit.
Drake moved.
His new body crossed the valley with terrifying speed.
Stone blurred beneath him as he ran on four limbs, muscles coiling and releasing with perfect rhythm.
Each leap carried him farther than any human jump should have.
Broken walls that had blocked his path before became nothing more than obstacles to climb.
For the first time since entering the Dead Ruins, Drake felt hope.
Then he smelled blood.
Human blood.
He stopped instantly.
His body lowered before he consciously decided to crouch.
Voices echoed from a tunnel ahead.
“…I told you I heard something.” “Shut up and keep moving.” “If the brat fell down here, he should be dead by now.” “Young Master Leon wants proof.
A hand, a head, anything.” Drake’s pupils narrowed.
The hunters.
They had found a way below.
Three men stepped into the far end of the valley carrying mana lamps and short blades.
Their armor bore the Valerius crest.
One held a crossbow.
Another had a scar across his cheek.
The third walked with the nervous caution of someone who wanted to be anywhere else.
Drake recognized one of them.
The man who had fired at him in the forest.
The Bonefang instincts surged.
Prey.
His jaw opened slightly.
Saliva dripped from his fangs.
He could kill them.
The realization came with terrifying certainty.
They had not noticed him yet.
The shadows concealed his pale body among the broken ruins.
If he leapt now, the first would die before he screamed.
The second would fall before raising his blade.
The third might run, but not far.
Drake’s claws pressed into the stone.
His human mind recoiled.
No.
He was not a killer.
Not like this.
Not while they didn’t even know what he was.
But then the scarred man spoke.
“If we find the brat alive, I’m breaking his legs first.
Let him crawl back to Young Master.” The crossbowman laughed.
“After what he did?
Young Master won’t leave enough of him to crawl.” Drake remembered Luna.
If they dragged him back, he would never see her again.
The world sharpened.
His breathing slowed.
He did not move out of rage.
He moved because survival demanded it.
The first hunter heard the scrape of claws too late.
Drake exploded from the shadows.
His body crossed the distance in a blur.
The crossbowman barely turned before Drake struck him with one forelimb.
The impact sent the man crashing into a stone pillar hard enough to knock the weapon from his hands.
He crumpled instantly, unconscious but alive.
The scarred hunter shouted and drew his blade.
“What the hell is that?!” Drake’s instincts supplied the answer.
Weak grip.
Unstable stance.
Fear response rising.
The man slashed.
Drake moved beneath the blade and slammed his shoulder into him.
Bone cracked.
The hunter flew backward, skidding across the stone with a cry of pain.
The third man dropped his mana lamp.
“N-No way…” His face turned pale.
“A Bonefang Ravager…” Drake stepped forward.
The man stumbled back.
“Stay away!” He raised his sword with shaking hands.
Drake could smell his terror.
It was bitter.
Sharp.
Almost intoxicating.
For a second, the beast wanted to savor it.
Drake forced the urge down.
Instead, he lowered his head and released a deep growl.
The sound rolled through the valley like distant thunder.
The hunter’s courage broke.
He turned and ran.
Drake did not chase him.
The scarred hunter groaned behind him, trying to rise.
Drake turned and placed one clawed foot against the man’s chest, pinning him to the ground.
The man froze.
His eyes slowly lifted to meet Drake’s crimson gaze.
There was no arrogance left in him.
Only fear.
Drake leaned closer.
He wanted to speak.
To warn them.
To tell them never to come after him again.
But his monstrous throat could only produce a low, rumbling snarl.
It was enough.
The hunter fainted.
Drake stepped back.
His breathing was heavy, but not from exertion.
From restraint.
He had won.
Easily.
Too easily.
The strength frightened him more than the danger had.
The relic spoke inside his mind.
Combat adaptation successful.
Drake closed his eyes.
“Don’t sound pleased.” Host survival probability increased.
He looked toward the path leading upward.
There was no time to waste.
More hunters might come.
The victorious Alpha might return.
And Luna was still waiting.
Drake climbed.
The ascent would have been impossible in human form.
The path was narrow, broken, and nearly vertical in several places, but the Bonefang body treated it like familiar terrain.
His claws dug into stone.
His tail balanced every movement.
His powerful limbs carried him higher and higher through the hidden passage.
After what felt like an hour, the air changed.
The scent of ancient stone faded.
Cold night wind brushed against his face.
Drake emerged from a crack hidden behind dead vines at the edge of the Dead Ruins.
The sky above was dark.
Stars glittered between drifting clouds.
For a moment, he stood there in silence, breathing in the outside air.
He had escaped.
Behind him lay the tomb, the relic, the underground valley, and the corpse that had become his first Beast Form.
Ahead of him lay the world that had always looked down on him.
Noble families.
Guilds.
Hunters.
Awakeners.
Power.
Drake looked down at his monstrous claws.
Then, slowly, he turned his gaze toward the distant glow of the city.
Somewhere there, Luna slept inside a hospital chamber, waiting for the brother who had promised to save her.
Drake’s crimson eyes narrowed.
He had entered the Dead Ruins as prey.
He returned as something else.
Not human.
Not monster.
Something in between.
And deep beneath his skin, the living relic waited silently for its next meal.