[Level Up!]
[Level: 6]
[EXP: 30/250]
[Fatigue: 0]
Warmth spread through Max’s exhausted muscles, and the crushing tiredness vanished. However, the deep cuts across his chest and the terrible pain in his calf remained.
He slowly pushed the dead beast away and sat up, wincing.
"E-rank..." he whispered, staring at the notification.
This had been an F-rank Gate. The permit he’d purchased had certainly said so.
He looked at the two ruined guardians near the collapsed passage, then back at the enormous creature lying in its own blood.
Without Devour, the eighteen Razorhounds he’d hunted and the cores he’d eaten before coming here, he would never have survived this room.
Max let out a breath that turned into a tired laugh.
"And people call this a beginner Gate?"
Max crouched beside the Alpha’s hind leg and pressed two fingers against the thick muscle. Even after death, the flesh felt unusually firm, and faint traces of mana still remained beneath its dark fur.
Ding!
[Gate Boss Defeated]
[Gate Cleared]
[Exit Available]
Max glanced at the notification and dismissed it. He wasn’t leaving without finding out what had allowed this thing to move so quickly.
He’d examined plenty of monster specimens in the laboratory, but none had been able to release mana through its muscles with such force. The Alpha’s legs were built to withstand the acceleration, and even then, one bad collision had almost destroyed them.
’If I could do that...’
Max smiled and reached for the gauntlet. First, he needed the core.
He cut into the Alpha’s chest until his claws struck something hard. The core he pulled free was larger than any he’d collected today, with dark red light shifting beneath its surface.
An E-rank mana core.
Max turned it over in his hand, wondering how much EXP it might give him. He even brought it close to his mouth before remembering why he’d entered the Gate in the first place.
"No... Money comes first for now."
He’d already eaten nine ordinary cores. There was no point coming out of the dungeon stronger and still unable to pay for a roof over his head.
Max slipped the core into his pocket and turned his attention to the Alpha’s thigh. A small piece of meat from the undamaged muscle was tougher than the ordinary Razorhounds’, but it tasted richer, too.
"Ooh, that’s good."
He would have liked to try cooking it, but his injured calf was already throbbing. He took another bite and activated Devour.
Ding!
[Devour Activated]
[Select parameter to consume]
[Memories] [Experiences] [Stats] [Skills] [Class]
His eyes went straight to the option he’d been waiting to try.
’Skills.’
DING!
[Skill essence extracted: Burst Step]
[Skill Acquired: Burst Step (Active)]
[Mastery: 19%]
[MP Cost: 12 per activation]
[Cooldown: 8 seconds]
[Effect: Compress mana through the muscles of the lower body and release it in a brief burst of acceleration.]
[Warning: Incomplete mastery limits control over usage, distance, and direction.]
Max read the description twice, then looked down at his legs.
"I actually got it..."
He tried following the unfamiliar sensation that had appeared with the skill. It wasn’t like moving an ordinary muscle. He could feel where the mana was supposed to gather, and how it needed to be released, almost as if he’d been shown a movement his body had never practiced.
The skill cost twelve MP each time, with an eight-second cooldown. That meant he couldn’t keep using it if something went wrong, but he had one hundred and fifty MP now, enough to try it without exhausting his reserves.
Max stepped into a clear space between two pillars. He could see the far wall from here, so he bent his knees carefully, favoring his wounded calf.
’Just one short step.’
He activated Burst Step.
WHOOSH!
Mana gathered so tightly in his legs that the muscles seemed to lock for an instant. Then it burst outward, launching Max across the chamber before he could take a proper second step.
’What?!’
The pillar ahead rushed toward him. He twisted at the last instant, managing to avoid hitting it headfirst, but his shoulder slammed against the stone.
BAM!
"ARGH!"
He staggered to a stop and caught himself with the gauntlet, grimacing as pain shot through his calf. Blood was already soaking through the makeshift bandage again.
"Okay... definitely not a short step."
Max turned to look behind him. He’d crossed the entire open stretch in an instant, and there was a fresh skid mark where his boot had scraped along the ground.
For a moment, he forgot about the pain.
’No wonder the Alpha was so hard to dodge.’
He’d felt the mana gather, but once he released it, his body had gone farther than he’d intended. His eyes and instincts could follow the movement, yet that hadn’t given him enough control to stop it. At nineteen percent mastery, Burst Step was as dangerous to him as it was to an enemy.
A grin spread across his face despite the pain.
’If I can get this under control...’
Ding!
[MP: 138/150]
Twelve MP for a movement that fast. Max couldn’t wait to try it again, preferably when his leg wasn’t half-chewed.
He glanced at the gauntlet, then back toward the collapsed passage. He still had two cores to collect before leaving.
Both guardians lay near the narrow opening where he’d fought them, though the Alpha’s attack had buried part of the area under broken stone. Max managed to reach the first corpse easily enough. Recovering the second took longer, but he eventually extracted both mana cores and added them to his collection.
[Progress: 21/50]
"Almost halfway," he muttered, flexing the gauntlet’s claws.
He slipped through the remaining gap, collected his backpack from behind the rock outside the chamber, and packed away the three new cores. With the nine ordinary ones he’d saved, he now had twelve to sell.
Max lifted the bag and immediately regretted putting its weight across his injured shoulder. Still, his mood improved when he thought about the money. The Alpha’s core alone should be worth considerably more than the ordinary ones, and the two guardians had left him something extra as well.
He didn’t know the exact prices yet, but at least he wouldn’t be returning empty-handed.
The journey back was slow, mostly because of his leg. Otherwise, nothing bothered him. The passages he’d fought his way through were silent, and soon the light of the Gate entrance appeared ahead.
"Next time, I’ll bring some bandages with me," Max said as he limped toward it.
He stepped outside and stopped for a moment, enjoying the cool air against his face. He was alive, he had enough cores to make the trip worthwhile, and he’d somehow come away with the Alpha’s skill.
Then his phone vibrated.
Max pulled it out and checked the permit. He’d expected most of his allotted time to be gone, but the session was still active, with more than an hour remaining.
’Huh. That much time left?’
Behind him, the Gate’s surface began rippling as the cleared dungeon reconstituted itself. A notice appeared on the screen.
[Gate Reconstitution In Progress]
[Estimated Time Remaining: 10 minutes]
Max looked from the countdown to his backpack.
In ten minutes, the Razorhounds would be back. So would the EXP, the cores, and the chance to practice Burst Step on something that wasn’t a stone pillar.
"I should go home," Max muttered, though his eyes remained fixed on the countdown.
His leg was in no condition for another fight, but the thought of all those Razorhounds returning made it difficult to walk away. After hesitating for a moment, he sat on a nearby rock and began adjusting his bandage, deciding to rest before making up his mind.
Yet as the countdown continued, Max found himself watching the Gate instead of the road home.
’Maybe just one more run...’