The forest reeked of blood...
Exactly how Xenos liked it.
He'd been pacing for a while, waiting for something that wasn't just another low-level pest, and when it finally came, it didn't disappoint.
'...that's new.'
Down the slope, a Crocotta lumbered out, a grotesque mix-and-match of creatures that definitely should've stayed in their respective families.
It had a dog-wolf body, a stag's legs, a lion's neck and tail, and a badger's head full of teeth.
If this wasn't evidence of the Daemons' love for gene-splicing, he didn't know what was.
The thing was truly ugly, but...
"Perfect."
Xenos activated his Beholding Eyes.
—
[Name: Crocotta]
[Rank: Brephos]
[Runes: Two]
—
Two runes were expected; this thing looked a lot stronger than those he grinded earlier, maybe on par with those Pythons he barely survived.
It'd require some effort... maybe a lot.
He could work with either, tough would always be fun, especially when faced with death.
Xenos stepped forward and started his favorite kind of warmup, figuring out whether its attacks were the same as the game or not.
"Alright, weird pup. Show me what you've got."
The Crocotta answered with a roar that sounded somewhat like a broken horn and then lunged forward, much faster than he expected.
Xenos twisted aside, his boots scraping the dirt as its jaws clamped down where his chest had been a moment earlier.
Beneath them both, the ground dug in.
'Okay, I really need to get better at estimating speed; I almost messed up with the dog too.'
He stepped back a little, keeping count.
'Anyways... that's one.'
It spun with those deer legs and kicked, a brutal back strike that whooshed past his face and tore bark off a tree behind him.
'Two. Bite and leg attack.'
He smirked.
'You're a gymnast, huh?'
The tail came next, sweeping out in a wide, heavy arc that almost took his head off.
He ducked under it, hair brushing its fur.
'Three. Tail whips; only one left.'
And sure enough, came the last one, claws that shot forth raw Divinity, loudly cutting through both ground and air.
Xenos barely leaned back in time, feeling the space in front of his nose split in three, one for each claw.
'Four. Claw attack...'
It lowered itself, already preparing for the next attack, telling him all that he needed to know.
'Alright, pattern confirmed.'
He exhaled slowly, flicking his hand.
A ripple of light shimmered in his palm as his sword appeared from his inventory.
'Please don't do that thing again.'
Eris's soft voice drifted in.
'What thing?'
'The thing where you test something that could kill you just to see if it will kill you.'
'It's called science.'
'It's called courting death.'
'Semantics.'
He stepped forward and tightened his grip.
'He who knows that he knows nothing.'
His Wise Fool Rune pulsed the moment he recalled the words, its Divinity rushing down his arm and straight into the blade, making the metal hum, glowing white-blue.
"Alright, let's gamble."
The Crocotta lunged again.
Xenos stepped into it and swung.
His blade carved through fur, hide, teeth, muscle, and bone like it was nothing.
For half a heartbeat, the world went quiet, and then the Crocotta fell apart, cleanly bisected from jaw to tail, its organs realizing too late that they'd been separated.
"HOLY SHIT!"
He blurted out, staring at the corpse.
"That... that was a high-level trigger!"
Eris smiled, delighted to see him excited.
'You didn't expect it to be this strong, did you?'
Xenos shook his head.
'Not at all... that was beautiful.'
'It was, good job.'
'Thanks.'
He kicked the corpse aside.
'Good, good, good.'
That manic edge lit up behind his eyes.
And then, without another word or thought, he rushed deep into the forest.
The grind fully resumed.
Crocotta after Crocotta.
Around him, the forest saw a blur of fangs, flashes of white-blue light, and heard the strange roars of dying monsters.
Each fight started the same, with him taunting them by dancing around them, grouping and lining them up, before ending them one by one, or sometimes even two at the same time.
The echo of him repeating "Crit, crit, crit" resounded all around as he swung over and over, the beasts dying faster than they could blink.
It wasn't always that easy, though.
One out of ten times, the Rune didn't trigger, and he'd strike with nothing but dull steel.
Thankfully, he was ready for it, so he never got injured all that badly, only a few scratches here and there, enough to make him look battle-scarred.
Sometimes his Luck would save him without him needing to do anything; however, often in quite hilarious ways, making them trip on the occasional root or simply crash into each other while attacking, making them miss.
He started thanking the terrain every other minute, beginning to understand why there were tree huggers out there.
Yet it wasn't only sunshine and rainbows; Calamity worked overtime as well, his pants catching fauna mid-swing, the occasional branch falling right as he dodged, slapping him across the face.
Xenos remained unfazed, or rather, ecstatic through it all, having the time of his life grinding out these poor monsters.
Hours blurred into each other as he kept on going without rest, killing at least over a hundred of them.
By the time he finally paused, truly exhausted, sweat dripping down the white hair stuck to his forehead and his jaw, meeting his torn tunic, cloak, and boots, all caked in mud, his Divinity flaring and fading with each harsh breath—
Ding!
His system revealed the count.
—
╔════════╗
║OVERFLOW!║
╚════════╝
╔═════════════╗
║☆ LEVEL UP X 3 ☆║
╚═════════════╝
[You've Slayed Crocotta X 120]
[EXP = 178]
[Level: 14 → 17]
[+ 9 STAT POINTS!]
—
'Hm.'
Though he expected it, the leveling really was slow... at least in the way he was doing it... Unfortunately, he couldn't switch things up, not yet at least.
His creativity couldn't help much here.
He simply needed to be stronger to face higher Rune count and class monsters; nothing he could cook up could change that.
Or, well, maybe there was, but that was very much the exception to the rule, only applicable in a scenario or two.
Still though, this wasn't too bad...
These three levels gave a good boost.
Walking over the corpse of the monster he just killed, Xenos dismissed the system with a wave of his hand.
'I should probably go check on—'
He stopped mid-sentence.
'Wait.'
Was this what they meant by the wind shifting?
He felt it clearly; the birds were gone too, and he could hear nothing but his breath.
'Xenos.'
Eris's voice was tight.
'I see you dropped the Title—'
He tried to be funny, but she pulled him in:
'Please.'
Xenos relented.
'Yeah, you feel that too?'
She sighed.
'...for the past while, yes.'
Nodding his head, he took a moment, turned a little, only to suddenly pause before a tree.
'This direction, right?'
He was making sure of where to go, using Eris as his internal GPS, something that she, yet again, didn't mind and rather supported.
'Don't go to the right of the trees.'
With that, he began his trek back to the flat plain, navigating the dark with little to no difficulty.
Eris, closely watching over him, ensured that all of his steps would remain true, even when Calamity had its say, which thankfully wasn't too often.
Eventually, he climbed a ridge and peered out, wiping the sweat off his forehead.
Down below, where the Houses fought—
No... they weren't fighting anymore.
At least not each other.
They were standing side by side, about fifty of them, their faces pale, and their weapons drawn... at the forest?
Yes, the forest.
They were prepared for what was coming.
And they obviously dreaded what was coming, for good reason, as the moment the source of their dread came, the entire region was no longer quiet, never mind the forest.
Hundreds of roars resounded, as did the sound of claws thumping the ground, their presence making the very air heavier with Divinity.
The first of them, a Crocotta, burst out of the brush, then another, then ten more, their eyes glowing crimson.
Xenos couldn't mistake this.
He saw it too many a time.
'...A Monster Tide.'
His exhausted grin brightened.
"Finally."
This was exactly what he was waiting for!
'You seem too used to abusing my power.'
Hm, was this Her attempt at fishing?
'I wasn't all that lucky in life.'
The Wise Fool didn't bite.
'Now watch me play.'
True Calamity had come.