SNAP!
The Razorhound Alpha’s jaws snapped shut a hand’s breadth from Max’s face.
WHOOSH!
He lurched sideways, but the movement pulled at the bite wound in his calf. His injured leg almost gave out, and the Alpha’s claws caught his sleeve as it passed, ripping the fabric down to his elbow.
"I was hoping you’d go for the other leg," Max muttered.
The creature landed near the cracked pillar, turned, and began circling him again. Blood dripped from its left hind leg. Max had managed to open a deep wound there a few moments earlier, but it had cost him another cut across his ribs.
He’d been a fool to enter the Gate again. He knew that much. The first few Razorhounds had been manageable with Feral Instinct, and he’d discovered that choosing [Stats] through Devour could give him an extra point of Agility.
That had been exciting enough to make him forget the pain for a while. Then the guardians had nearly reminded him why he’d wanted to go home.
The last guardian’s death had pushed him over the next level, and the notification was still fresh in his mind.
DING!
[Level Up!]
[Level: 7]
[EXP: 0/320]
[Fatigue: 0]
The exhaustion had disappeared. Unfortunately, he still had to stand on the same damaged leg.
Now there was one monster left, and it was getting smarter about where to attack.
The Alpha slowed near the pillar. Max watched the muscles in its hindquarters tense and the faint red mana gather beneath the fur.
’You’re going to burst forward.’
He shifted to the right, deliberately leaving the injured side open. The Alpha’s gaze followed it.
’Come on.’
BOOM!
It launched itself straight at his calf.
Max activated Burst Step, but instead of trying to outrun it, he kicked off toward the pillar. Mana snapped through his legs, throwing him just far enough to slip past the charging beast. The Alpha tried to turn after him. Its wounded hind leg buckled against the stone.
CRACK!
Its shoulder struck the pillar, and Max was already at its side. He drove the gauntlet’s claws beneath its jaw and pulled with both hands.
SHNK!
The Alpha twisted violently. Its head struck his chest, knocking the air out of him, but Max kept his good foot braced against the broken stone and tore downward once more.
The beast stumbled, staggered two steps, and fell.
THUD!
Max stayed where he was until its chest stopped moving. Then he sat down before his own legs could make the decision for him.
Ding!
[E-rank Razorhound Alpha Slain]
[EXP +150]
[EXP: 150/320]
He stared at the notification, then at the corpse.
"Twice," he said, laughing weakly. "I actually killed you twice."
He’d nearly died facing the first Alpha. This time, he’d known where the beast would go before it moved, and that had made all the difference.
Max pushed himself upright and went to collect his reward.
Before using Devour, he sliced a thin piece of flesh from the Alpha’s uninjured thigh and wrapped it in the clean lining of a specimen pouch from his bag. Then he bit into the corpse and selected [Stats].
Ding!
[Stats Devoured]
[AGI +2]
A faint warmth moved through his limbs as the stolen Agility settled into his body. Max grinned, though he resisted the urge to test it on his injured leg.
"That’s more like it."
When he cut another piece from the same thigh, his knife went through with surprising ease. He pressed a thumb into the flesh and frowned. The muscle was softer now, almost like ordinary meat, without the hard, springy resistance he’d noticed before.
He hadn’t paid much attention to what happened to the flesh afterward. Until now, he’d been more interested in what Devour gave him than what it left behind.
’Could the extraction be affecting the tissue too?’
Max packed the second sample separately. He had a fairly good idea how to check, once he could get his hands on a scanner again.
He harvested the final core and pulled his backpack from its hiding place outside the chamber. With the ones he’d collected on both runs, he had thirty-three cores to sell. A glance at the gauntlet confirmed another pleasant surprise.
[Progress: 42/50]
Eight more kills, and he’d finally find out what else the thing could do.
For now, though, he had done enough killing. The mere thought of another Razorhound made his calf throb.
An hour later, Max stood at the Association’s core exchange with a heavy backpack, a torn shirt, and a number ticket clutched between his fingers.
The clerk was a round-faced man who looked barely thirty, with OWEN printed on a crooked badge. He was eating something from a paper bag and barely glanced up when Max approached.
"Selling?" the man asked.
"Unless you’re buying dinner."
The clerk looked at the blood on Max’s sleeve. "Depends what dinner is. Player card and permit, please."
He scanned them while Max started placing cores on the counter. His chewing slowed after the first dozen, and stopped entirely when the two dark red ones appeared.
"Hang on." He pulled one closer with a gloved hand. "Where’d you get these?"
"Same Gate as the others."
"This is an E-rank core." The man checked the permit again. "Your Gate was F-rank."
"Yeah. Someone should really tell the monster that."
The clerk didn’t laugh. He checked the second Alpha core, frowned, then entered something on his screen.
"You found two?"
"Two clears. The permit was still active."
"Right." He gave Max another look. "Look, I’m not accusing you of anything. We can verify the cores here, and I’ll pay you for what they are. But an E-rank boss appearing in an F-rank Gate is a safety problem. I’m submitting a reassessment notice."
"Good... I nearly lost my leg finding out."
The clerk looked at the ruined bandage and seemed to believe him. He sorted the cores quickly, rejecting none, though he set two cracked ordinary ones aside for a lower valuation.
"Different prices?" Max asked, watching him work.
"Same rank doesn’t mean same quality," the clerk said. "Purity, damage, species, what refiners are buying this week. You’d be surprised what a particular core can fetch if the right guild needs it."
Max wasn’t surprised. He’d spent enough time checking Gate and equipment prices to know that a letter rank only told part of the story. Still, he followed every adjustment on the display, watching the total rise.
When the clerk finally turned the screen toward him, Max went very still.
"That’s after the exchange fee?"
"Every last credit."
He looked at it again.
[Total: 4890 Credits]