Chapter 103: Curse and Current
Laughter rolled across the black sand as the golem thundered forward, each step cracking stone and boiling puddles beneath its feet. Brundar ran beside it, beard streaming in the firelight, axe raised high.
For a moment, Seo-jin wanted to stay, he wanted to watch the metal golem tear through flesh and scale, but he had his part to play.
"I'm getting one of those."
He turned and waded into the surf. Cold water clawed up his legs as he pushed deeper, the shore firelight fading behind him. When the waves reached his chest, he drew a breath and plunged beneath.
[Ten minutes. Don't forget.]
That was his limit without resurfacing. Less if he ended up fighting.
'Thought this would be easier.'
He kicked hard, arms cutting wide through the water, but his rhythm broke with every stroke. The memory of how to swim existed in the body he'd stolen, but memory didn't mean instinct.
[Even strokes. Extend. Pull back. Hands angled. There...better.]
He adjusted, movements tightening into something close to control. The drag lessened. He began to move faster, gliding through the cold as his Soul Sight stretched outward.
A mass of dim auras pulsed far ahead, deep under the island.
'How the hell are they breathing down there? Snakemen can't breathe underwater.'
[Not naturally. Likely an item—or a buff. Considering their use of Curse magic, I'd wager the latter.]
He hoped the system was right. Curse magic was the one field of his evolution still unknown to him, something he needed to understand, especially after what they'd done to Grimm. The thought of the sleeping skull stirred a pulse of heat behind his ribs.
He pressed forward. The darkness swallowed him whole. The deeper he swam, the quieter the world became—no fish, no kelp, no sound beyond his own pulse. Even the seabed looked stripped bare, the stone scoured smooth as bone.
It didn't feel like an ocean. It felt hollow. Dead.
'Where the hell are all the fish? You'd think there'd be something down here.'
[Don't count on it. The oceans belong to the Abyssal Realm now. Most natural life's been wiped out for decades.]
The words sank heavier than the water around him. Disappointment flickered, but focus took over. He had no intention of meeting some tentacled monster his first time swimming. Angling his body and kicking harder, he started to cut through the black water with clean, practiced strokes. White froth streamed behind him as he dove lower toward the faint blur of auras below.
It didn't take long for them to come into view, yellow and green shapes pulsing in clusters deep within the island's base. Too far to reach directly. He needed their entrance point.
He hovered in the dark, scanning the rock wall for any sign of movement or shimmer, but nothing stood out. He swam level with them, circling the base, eyes straining against the gloom.
[Three minutes left. You should surface—]
'There!'
Not an opening, just the barest shimmer of bubbles rising through a pile of stone. Easy to miss if he hadn't been looking for it.
He surged upward, broke the surface in a single motion, filled his lungs, and dove again. His body knifed through the cold, straight for the source.
Hitting bottom, he braced his feet and shoved at the rocks. One, two, three stones shifted under his grip. With the fourth, the water trembled and a hollow void appeared beneath.
His mouth curled into a grin. Eyes flared red through the dark.
'Found them.'
He started to summon Butcher's Wrath—
[Wait—]
The system's voice cut through his pulse.
[Don't summon them. Blood carries for miles down here. You'll call something worse than them.]
He snorted a bubble, irritation flickering, but the system was right. Down here, blood wasn't scent, it was signal. Every predator in the Abyss would come running. He'd already planned to flee for his life the second the killing ended. Still, he hadn't thought about Butcher's Wrath giving him away.
He flexed his hands, claws pushing through the skin with a faint crunch, and drifted forward. The tunnel walls scraped his shoulders, slick with silt and marks of the Snake Tribe. His eyes tracked the auras ahead...slow-moving, deliberate.
Scratches lined the stone. Long, uneven gouges where something had passed. He dragged a claw through one and frowned. The edges weren't chipped or dug. They were bitten.
'Those aren't tool marks. They're teeth marks. Are they eating through the rock?'
[Unlikely. Proceed carefully. They've already proven they can hide from your Soul Sight.]
He eased his pace, pressing close to the tunnel wall. The water vibrated with faint impacts, muffled thuds and scrapes that crawled through the stone. Ahead, a pulse of green light bled through the dark, shifting with the motion of bodies around it.
'If I kill the light, I can cut them apart before they even notice.'
He tightened his focus, feeling the steady drag of the current against his back. Inch by inch, he closed the distance. The snakemen couldn't see him, but through his eyes, every heartbeat, every twitch, every coil of muscle glowed bright as day.
Four green-scaled snakemen clung to a heavy chain, their hands and tails coiled tight, their bodies trembling from the drag. Behind them, three copper-scaled ones hovered with short spears gripped and ready, but Seo-jin's focus wasn't on them. It was on what they had leashed.
A dull ache pulsed through his chest. Grimm.
The thing chained made his mind twist. A fish, if it could still be called that, large as a hound and built entirely of bone was eating the stone. Ghost-light wrapped its body in warped green luminescence. Strips of translucent flesh clung to the skeleton like film, fluttering as it strained against the links biting into it.
His mind raced. The shape, the aura, the faint tug in his chest...it was a spirit. Bound.
A grin spread across his face, slow and sharp.
'A ghost is a soul. They should of brought a different light.'
If the snakes had turned, they would've seen two burning red eyes glinting in the dark.
[-20SM]
[Desecrate // Activated]
[Soulmass Sacrifice // 20]
[Damage // 1360]
He fed the system almost half his Soulmass, the power compressing inside him until it felt like his bones might crack. Base damage sixty-eight, multiplied by twenty...more than enough to erase anything those snakes could ever hope to command.
The water throbbed as his eyes flared white-hot—then the attack struck.
But instead of the ghost fish shattering, the chains screamed. The sound tore through the tunnel, metallic and shrill, before they burst apart in a blinding flash.
The light faded. The ghost hung still, unmoving, but free. The snakes staggered back, scales rattling in the current.
'What the fuck—bullshit!'
He didn't have time to figure it out. Plan B.
He dug his claws into the wall, feet anchoring deep. The stone split beneath him as his muscles coiled tight. Then he launched, one sharp movement that cracked the tunnel, closing the distance before the snakes could even turn.
[-12SM]
[Black Pit // Activated]
[-30% Speed / Radius 4m / Duration 30sec]
[HP // 1300/1300]
[SM // 16/48]
The copper-scales recovered first; the green lagged behind, thrashing weakly in the current. As Seo-jin closed the distance, something pale drifted free from one of them, small, white, and pulsing faint light. The snake convulsed immediately after, limbs jerking in panic.
He didn't hesitate. Passing the guards like a comet, he twisted his body and slammed both feet into the wall, snatching the white object mid-twist. It vanished in a flicker of system light.
The tunnel went still. Every snakeman froze.
Covered in pale-green light, Seo-jin's grin spread as he floated beside the ghost fish. Then he struck.
His claws ripped through the belly of the nearest green-scale, intestines spilling in ribbons. Kicking off the wall, he speared the next one through the chest, dragged it close, and bit through its throat. His teeth transformed mid-motion, tearing cartilage and spine in one pull with his fangs.
[+44Exp]
[+43Exp]
[Feed // Activated]
[+15%HP over 30sec]
[+9SM]
He hurled the corpse toward the oncoming spears. Two struck dead flesh; one slammed into his chest. The hit drove him back, but his armor drank the force.
[-45HP]
[Demonic Will // Active]
[Stack // 0]
Thirty percent damage reduction—almost worth the hit.
[+39HP // Feed]
He grabbed the impaled body and shoved off the wall again, both feet planting as he kicked it toward the copperheads. The corpse spun through the water like a flailing weapon.
'Let's see how this works.'
His gaze locked onto the drifting body. The copper-scaled snakes were still pulling their spears free when he triggered the nis new class skill.
[Corpse Harvest // Activated]
[Sacrifice // D Rank]
[Summon +5 Lesser Broodling / F Rank]
The corpse twitched. Then ruptured.
The wound at its gut exploded with black mist. Muscle and scale sloughed away, shredded by unseen teeth. Something small ripped free, a shape, then another, and another, until five shadows writhed in the blood cloud.
They didn't wait for orders.
The nearest copperhead didn't even scream before the broodlings attacked. The water began to churned with black silhouettes, blood, and shredded scales.
Two-foot mindless killers, sharp-toothed and snarling. Eyes burned red as coals, their first breath a hiss of bubbles and hunger.
[Four minutes left. The timer drops faster the more you fight.]
Seo-jin didn't hesitate. He lunged at the nearest green-scale, caught its tail, and yanked. The flesh tore free in a bloody pop, stopping the snake mid-slither.
His claws sank into its back. Fingers closed around the spine and pulled until vertebrae popped loose in a streak of white and red.
[+47Exp]
[+7SM]
[+39HP // Feed]
He kicked the corpse into the blood haze churning ahead and pointed at it.
[Corpse Harvest // Activated]
[Sacrifice // D Rank]
[Summon +5 Lesser Broodling / F Rank]
The body convulsed, then split. Black mist boiled out, spinning in tight coils before bursting apart. Five more small, horned shapes clawed through the mush of dissolving meat, hissing through blood bubbles as they joined the frenzy.
The last green-scale had backed itself against the cave wall. Its chest heaved, eyes darting between the exit and Seo-jin.
That's when he saw it, a sliver of white clamped between its teeth. Bone.
Seo-jin's grin widened as he pointed in excitement.
The snake panicked and bit down, diving for the chaos instead of fighting the crazed human.
[-2SM]
[Rend // Activated]
[+15% Slicing Damage]
The water bent around him as he surged forward. The snake barely turned before a shadow swallowed it. Its claws scraped uselessly at the rock as Seo-jin dragged it back, ribs snapping under his grip.
He crunched through its face with his jaws, the rush of flesh and marrow filling his mouth. He then spit the meat into his hand, shoving the twitching corpse toward the cloud of broodlings—
He flinched. A flicker caught his eye of the ghost fish still hovering, watching. He sneered, then raised a finger.
[Corpse Harvest // Activated]
[Sacrifice // D Rank]
[Summon +5 Lesser Broodling / F Rank]
Another rush of heat spread through him, a pulse of power that almost felt good. He didn't have the time to dissect the details, but he understood the basics. He'd read a bit on the climb to the surface with Panic. This skill wasn't just useful. It was perfection.
Fifteen small broodlings at one point filled the tunnel, a living current of teeth and claws. A third were now dead, bodies impaled, floating, or clinging to thrusting spears, but the rest kept tearing, thrashing, and feasting.
Rend faded. His claws shortened. He flipped the chunk of meat in his hand, tore open the mouth, and plucked out the same bone the snake had bitten down on. He slipped it between his teeth and inhaled.
[System // Notification]
[Curse Inflicted // Endless Breath]
His shoulders lowered a bit.
'Perfect. Almost too easy.'
[Finish it and get to land. The bloods scent has already spread for miles.]
He summoned Butcher's Wrath. The blades burst from his arms, eager, trembling. The carnage in the water made them hum.
Seo-jin grinned, breathing steady now under the curse's effect. His crimson eyes fixed on the shifting cloud ahead.
Only three copper-scales still moved—one half-dead, skin peeled and ribs exposed, swinging its spear out of reflex. The other two still fought, cutting through the last few broodlings as fast as they came.
One raised its weapon again—then froze as the world inverted.
Its head floated free before it understood what happened, watching its body drift below while two cleavers carved through the rest in a blur of red.
----
Seo-jin tore a spear from his thigh, muscle fibers snapping wet in the current. A corpse bumped his shoulder—one of his own broodlings, head half-missing. He shoved it aside and let the pain burn itself dull through Demonic Will. The hole in his leg was already knitting shut when he caught another drifting body and ripped it open.
Pulling the breathing bone from his teeth—
[System // Notification]
[Curse // Endless Breath // Removed]
—he chewed on some intestines and glanced toward the green light pulsing deeper in the tunnel.
'Any ideas what to do with that?'
[Cross-referencing data. Closest match—entity class: "Styx." Ghost-type organism linked to Beast Realm shamans. Information limited. Known traits: schooling, communal cognition. Essentially… hive-minded phantoms.]
'Hive-minded ghosts that eat stone. Makes perfect sense.'
He glanced down, hand brushing his chest where Grimm slept. The burn there had faded, but the thought still bit.
[Clarification: they can consume any matter—flesh, metal, energy, even spiritual residue. Non-hostile unless approached. Their reaction suggests defensive swarming, typical of linked consciousness.]
'And that helps me how?'
[It doesn't.]
His thigh sealed tight. Good enough. He rolled his shoulder, looked one last time at the spectral fish still hovering dumbly among the corpses, then shrugged. If it wasn't attacking, it wasn't his problem.
He bit down on the bone again, pushed off the wall, and turned toward the exit.
The burning hit before his next kick. A pulse, sharp and deep. His chest seized, fire spreading under his ribs.
'What the—?!'
System light flooded his vision.
[System // Notification]
[Uplink Request // Accepted]
[Source // System By-Product: Grimm]
[Designation // User Pet]
[Sub-System Resource Protocols // Engaged]
[Compatible Entity // Detected]
The lines flickered too fast to track, bleeding into each other until they vanished—
—replaced by one final prompt.
[Would the User like to feed your pet?]
[ Yes / No ]