The Razorhound Tyrant had barely stopped moving when a sharp ringing came from the Gate.
Max looked up. The enormous opening trembled. Then it began shrinking, pulling inward so quickly that those closest to it scrambled away from their equipment.
"The boss is dead!" someone shouted. "The Gate’s closing!"
The remaining Razorhounds stopped in their tracks. One that had been crawling over the western barricade suddenly went limp and turned to ash.
The others collapsed just as quickly, and within seconds the only thing moving on the platform was the Gate itself.
POP!
It vanished.
[Gate Cleared]
[Gate Break Suppressed]
A cheer went up from the defenders. Some raised their weapons, while others simply dropped onto the concrete, looking as though they’d never get up again.
Max smiled at the sight. The fighting had been rough, but at least everyone still standing had a chance to go home now.
"The wounded first!" Captain Rourke called over the noise. "Get the healers in here!"
Several Players hurried to help. Max was about to join them when another notification appeared.
DING!
[Special Achievement Unlocked]
[Title Acquired: Gatebreaker]
[First Gate Break Boss Defeated]
"Oh?"
Max opened the title description, but before he could read much of it, the gauntlet on his right arm grew warm.
DING!
[Unknown Gauntlet]
[Current Rank: E]
[Next Evolution: D-rank]
[Requirement: Slay 5 D-rank Elite monsters or higher while equipped.]
[Progress: 1/5]
Max stared at the last line, then glanced down at the Tyrant.
’Four more of those?’
Finding another four wasn’t going to be easy. But it would be worth it. The gauntlet had already surprised him once when it unlocked Sanguine Claim, and he wanted to know what else was hiding inside the thing.
"Max!"
Hale was sitting beside the collapsed barricade while a healer examined his leg. Max crossed the platform and crouched beside him.
"How bad is it?"
"I’ve had better afternoons." Hale winced as the healer straightened his ankle.
Anton stood nearby, staring at Max with a surprised expression.
"That thing was D-rank," Anton said.
"And you just..." Anton glanced at the Tyrant’s corpse. "How did you even do that?"
Hale, meanwhile was simply looking at Max with no words left in his mouth.
"You saved my life," Hale said. "Thank you."
"It’s not problem. Just glad we’re okay," Max patted him while saying.
He was still smiling when he noticed the bodies being carried toward the collection area. There were so many that a much more interesting thought occurred to him.
’Wait a minute...’
The Association had started collecting the cores, with volunteers moving between the dead Razorhounds and the sorting tables.
He hurried over to the woman supervising the harvest.
"Need another pair of hands?"
The woman overseeing the harvest looked up. "Aren’t you the Player who killed the Tyrant?"
"That’s me."
"Then go and get checked by a healer. You’ve done enough."
"I’m fine. Besides, you look busy."
She glanced toward the growing pile of carcasses, then handed him a knife and a pair of gloves.
"Fine. Separate the cores from the surrounding tissue. Ordinary Razorhounds go to the white crates, Alphas to the green. And don’t touch the Tyrant until the inspection team says so."
"Got it. Do the Players get to keep any of these?"
"No. Containment harvests belong to the Association. They’ll issue compensation once the reports are finished."
Max was a bit disappointed. It didn’t make sense that the cores they killed didn’t belong to them, but he couldn’t challenge the system.
And besides, those cores were just one of the things that brought him here. They couldn’t stop him from what he truly wanted.
He began with an Alpha whose throat had been opened by a clean sword cut.
He’d only ever used Devour on monsters he’d personally killed.
But was that actually necessary?
Max was about to find out. He carried the pouch behind a partition where the waste tissue was being sorted. With nobody looking, he took a bite.
[Devour activated.]
[Target: Razorhound Alpha]
[Select parameter to consume.]
[Experiences] [Stats] [Memories] [Skills] [Class]
’Stats.’
Ding!
[STR +1]
Max nearly laughed with his mouth full.
’It works!’
He hadn’t even touched the Alpha while it was alive, yet Devour had taken its strength without the slightest complaint.
That changed everything. Until now, every gain had meant risking his neck in a Gate. If he could devour monsters killed by other Players, he could get stronger from the bodies they left behind.
And judging by the collection area, they left behind an awful lot.
"Hey!" someone called. "You coming back?"
"Yeah!"
Max swallowed and hurried out, trying not to grin too widely.
For the next couple of hours, Max got to work.
[AGI +0.5]
[STR +0.5]
[CON +0.5]
By the time he was done, strength had risen by eight points. Agility was up by eight too, and Constitution had gained another three.
Nineteen extra stat points, without killing a single additional monster.
Max bit the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing.
’All this from leftovers?’
There were monster-processing facilities all over the city. Most of the flesh that passed through them was thrown away once the valuable parts had been harvested.
’What have I been doing, risking my life for every bite?’
He was still enjoying that thought when someone called for help at the Tyrant’s corpse.
After Max was done lending a hand, he sneakily cut a piece before going somewhere to consume it.
[Devour activated.]
[Target: Razorhound Tyrant]
[Select parameter to consume.]
[Experiences] [Stats] [Memories] [Skills] [Class]
’Skills.’
A deep vibration spread through his chest. Max grabbed the edge of the table as he recalled the Tyrant’s roar smashing shields apart and sending Players flying.
DING!
[Skill Acquired: Tyrant’s Roar]
[Mastery: 2%]
[Type: Active | Rank: D]
[Effect: Release a mana-infused roar that produces a concussive shockwave and inflicts Fear on enemies within range.]
[Targets with insufficient WIL may become temporarily paralyzed by terror.]
[Higher WIL increases resistance. Higher mastery improves range, power and control.]
Max stared at the description.
’Fear? So that was why...’
He’d thought the Players around the Tyrant had been too injured or stunned to react. Some of them had been, but the roar had been doing more than knocking people off their feet.
No wonder the defenders had struggled to fight back. A Player could be strong enough to survive the shockwave and still find himself unable to move if his Willpower wasn’t high enough.
Max remembered the first roar. He’d been near the edge of its range, far enough away to escape the worst of it. The second had been aimed directly at Hale, and he’d interrupted it with Stormbolt before it went off.
’Good thing I did. What if it had caught me properly?’
He didn’t know whether his own WIL would have been high enough to resist that fear. He’d been busy devouring Strength and Agility for days, but he hadn’t paid his Willpower nearly as much attention.
He made a mental note to start paying attention to WIL, then looked at the skill description again, and an excited smile began spreading across his face.
’Hehe. I’m definitely trying this one.’
Not here, though. The reserve had suffered enough damage for one day.
Another notification appeared just as he was returning the knife to its sheath.
DING!
[Unique Class: Glutton]
[First Class Advancement Available]
[Requirements Fulfilled]
[Player Rank: E-rank or higher]
[Devour the essence of a D-rank monster or higher]
[Unique Class advancement conditions are revealed only after they are met.]
[Proceed?]
Max blinked.
’Class advancement?’
He’d crossed into E-rank during Blackthorn without receiving anything like this. Now he finally understood why.
’It wasn’t waiting for a level. It was waiting for me to eat something stronger!’
He reached toward Yes, then stopped when someone shouted for the disposal team.
Max looked at the blood on his hands, the busy workers, and the smoking remains of the Gate platform.
’Probably not the best place for this.’
He left the window open, finished the last of his work, and went to collect his bag. Whatever this advancement was going to give him, he intended to find out as soon as he got home.
By the time Max got home, his shoulders were aching from the weight of his Blackthorn bag.
He dropped it beside the bed, washed the blood and grime from his hands, and returned to his room with the advancement notification still floating in front of him.
[Unique Class: Glutton]
[First Class Advancement Available]
[Proceed?]
He considered the notification for another moment, then selected Yes.
Warmth spread from his stomach through the rest of his body.
For a few seconds, Max felt as though he’d swallowed something that kept expanding without making him any fuller.
Then the sensation vanished.
DING!
[Class Advancement Successful]
[Unique Class: Glutton]
[Class Stage: F-rank >> E-rank]
[Class Skill Unlocked: Stomach]
[Stomach]
[Type: Spatial Storage]
[Store and retrieve inanimate objects in a private space.]
[Storage Capacity: Unlimited]
Max read the description twice before a breathless laugh escaped him.
"Hold on..."
Spatial storage?
He turned toward the Blackthorn bag sitting beside his bed. It was stuffed with mana cores, spare specimen pouches, a knife, and everything else he’d carried through the day’s hunts.
The straps were stretched from the weight, and he was already dreading hauling it on another expedition.
Max put one hand on the bag and thought of storing it.
The bag disappeared immediately. One moment it was there, and the next his hand was resting against the floor.
Max stared at the empty spot.
’No way.’
He could sense the bag somewhere inside a space that wasn’t quite part of his body. When he thought of it again, the bag reappeared beneath his palm, every strap and core exactly where he’d left them.
"Hahaha!"
He grabbed the bag and made it disappear again. Then he stored the specimen case, his spare boots and the chair beside his desk.
They vanished one after another, leaving an increasingly empty patch of floor.
Max retrieved the chair first, then the boots. Everything came back unchanged, and the storage didn’t seem any closer to filling.
’Unlimited... It really means unlimited?’
He remembered looking up storage rings when he’d gone shopping for equipment.
Back then, he’d been desperate for a way to stop dragging a backpack through every Gate, but the cheapest rings had cost hundreds of thousands of Credits and offered barely enough room for a couple of bags.
Even wealthier Players had to be careful about how much they carried. Storage rings were valuable enough that thieves sometimes targeted them specifically, and anyone wearing one made it obvious they had something worth stealing.
Max looked at his bare left hand, then at his gauntlet.
He wasn’t wearing anything new. There was no no visible equipment for somebody to snatch.
Best of all, his storage didn’t have a size limit. He sat down slowly, staring at the place where the bag had been.
’Are you serious?’
The next moment, he burst out laughing.
"Oh, this is ridiculous!"