For what felt like an eternity, Macarius could do nothing but endure.
Then, suddenly–
The System Window appeared again.
[Adaptive Regeneration has completed its first evolution against Damage Type: Biting.]
[Adaptation: Biting Type 1.]
[Current Resistance: 50%.]
[Damage received from Biting Type 1 attacks has been reduced by 50%.]
[First Evolution Bonus acquired.]
[Endurance +3.]
[Willpower +3.]
[Vitality +3.]
[Extreme Pain endured.]
[Endurance +1.]
[Willpower +1.]
Macarius barely managed to read it. His eyes were half-open. His breathing came in short, broken gasps. He couldn’t even tell how much time had passed.
A minute? Ten minutes? An hour?
It didn’t matter anymore. His entire body felt like it had been dragged through hell and thrown back into the same place.
But something had changed. At first, Macarius thought he was imagining it. One of the rabbits bit into his forearm. His body tensed.
But...
It didn’t hurt as much. His eyes widened. Another rabbit sank its teeth into his calf. Pain still came.
Sharp. Hot. Real. But it was no longer the unbearable agony that had nearly shattered his mind. The difference was small. Yet after what he had just endured, it felt enormous.
Macarius slowly looked at his arm. The rabbit was still biting him. He stared at it. Then at the System Window.
"Half..."
His voice was barely more than a whisper.
"Half the damage..."
Another rabbit jumped toward him. Macarius moved. His fingers closed around something beneath the mass of fur. His sword. He had almost forgotten about it.
His hand tightened around the hilt. The rabbit lunged. Macarius swung.
SHNK.
The blade cut through its body. The creature dropped into the grass. Macarius froze. For a moment, he simply stared.
He had killed it. His chest rose and fell violently. Then another rabbit jumped onto him. He swung again.
SHNK.
Another body hit the ground. Something inside Macarius finally snapped.
Not fear. Not despair. Rage. Pure, irrational rage.
"You..."
His eyes burned.
"You little bastards..."
Three rabbits rushed him at once. Macarius swung.
Once. Twice. Three times. His movements were crude. There was no technique. No graceful swordsmanship. He simply swung the blade wherever he saw fur.
But there were so many rabbits packed around him that almost every swing found something.
SHNK.
[Congratulations.]
[You have defeated Wild Rabbit Lv. 2.]
[Experience gained: 15.]
Another swing.
SHNK.
[Congratulations.]
[You have killed Wild Rabbit Lv. 2.]
[Experience gained: 30.]
Another. Another. Another. The System Windows began appearing so quickly that Macarius barely noticed them.
[Wild Rabbit Lv. 2 defeated.]
[Experience gained: 15.]
SHNK.
[Wild Rabbit Lv. 2 killed.]
[Experience gained: 30.]
SHNK.
[Wild Rabbit Lv. 2 killed.]
[Experience gained: 30.]
The forest became chaos. Rabbits leaped from every direction. Macarius stumbled backward, nearly falling each time.
His legs refused to support him properly. His arms shook violently from exhaustion. His sword felt heavier with every swing. But he kept moving.
"GET AWAY!"
SHNK.
"GET OFF ME!"
SHNK.
"I’VE HAD ENOUGH!"
SHNK.
A rabbit bit into his thigh. Macarius grimaced. But the pain was different now. Manageable.
He kicked it away and brought the sword down.
THUD.
The creature stopped moving. Another jumped toward his chest. Macarius raised his sword.
SHNK.
It fell beside him. He was breathing heavily now. His clothes were torn. His body was covered in blood. Some of it was his.
Most of it wasn’t. He could barely stand. Yet he was still standing.
Barely. Macarius looked around. The rabbits were still coming. His eyes twitched.
"...You have got to be kidding me."
A dozen more rabbits emerged from the bushes. Macarius stared at them. His grip tightened around the sword.
His legs trembled. His entire body screamed at him to run. But there was nowhere to run. So he raised his sword again.
"Fine."
His voice was hoarse.
"If you want to eat me..."
He took a shaky breath.
"...you’re going to have to pay for it."
The rabbits charged. Macarius swung. And the forest filled with the sound of steel cutting through flesh. More than an hour passed.
Macarius no longer knew exactly how long.
Time had lost its meaning somewhere between the hundredth swing of his sword and the hundredth scream.
The forest had become strangely quiet. The rabbits were gone. All that remained were bodies.
Hundreds of small grey, brown, and white bodies lay scattered across the grass. Some were piled over one another. Others were sprawled between the trees, their blood staining the green earth beneath them.
And in the middle of it all stood Macarius. Barely. His knees trembled violently. His breathing was ragged. His sword hung loosely from his right hand, its tip almost touching the ground.
His clothes were torn beyond recognition. His face, arms, chest, and legs were covered in blood. But almost none of it belonged to him. Every wound his body had suffered had already closed.
Every bite had regenerated. Every piece of flesh that had been torn away had returned. Yet that did not mean he was fine.
Far from it. His body felt as though someone had beaten every bone inside him with a hammer. His muscles trembled. His joints ached.
His head throbbed violently. And beneath all of that was the memory of pain.
Pain from every bite. Pain from every wound. Pain from every nerve reconnecting during regeneration. Pain from his body rebuilding itself again and again.
He had survived. But surviving did not mean he had escaped unharmed. Macarius looked down at the sword in his hand. His fingers barely had the strength to hold it.
"...I..."
His voice was hoarse. He swallowed.
"...did it."
The words sounded strange coming from him. He didn’t even know what he had done. He only knew that he had been attacked.
He had screamed. He had almost lost consciousness. Then he had kept swinging.
Again. And again. And again. Until nothing was left to swing at. A translucent blue window appeared before his eyes.
[Your achievements are being calculated...]
Macarius stared at it. His vision was already beginning to blur. Another window appeared.
[Congratulations.]
[You have defeated 178 × Wild Rabbit Lv. 2.]
[Experience gained: 2,625.]
Macarius blinked slowly.
"One hundred..."
He couldn’t finish the sentence. Another notification appeared.
[Congratulations.]
[You have reached Level 5.]
[You have received 3 Free Stat Points for each level gained.]
[Total Free Stat Points received: 12.]
His eyes moved across the words. He barely understood them.
Level. Experience. Stats. He had too many questions. But he was too tired to ask even one.
Another notification appeared.
[Sword swung numbers reached: 100.]
[Reward available: Slash Lv. 1 — Active Skill.]
Macarius stared. Then another notification appeared immediately afterward.
[Sword swung numbers reached: 200.]
[Reward available: Slash Lv. 2 — Active Skill.]
His brows twitched. Then another.
[Sword swung count: 201.]
[Congratulations.]
[You have acquired: Slash Lv. 2 — Active.]
[Slash Lv. 2: Attacks performed through the Slash skill deal 17% additional damage.]
Macarius stared at the screen.
"Two hundred..."
His head slowly lowered. He looked at his sword. Then at the countless bodies surrounding him.
"So that’s..."
His eyelids became heavier.
"...how many times..."
His knees finally gave out.
Thud.
Macarius collapsed onto the blood-soaked grass. The sword slipped from his fingers and landed beside him.
He didn’t even react. His cheek rested against the cold ground. Above him, the branches swayed gently in the wind. The sunlight filtered through the leaves. For the first time since entering the forest, there was no screaming.
No biting. No teeth. No pain. Only silence. Macarius slowly turned his eyes toward the sky. It was blue. So impossibly blue. He stared at it without thinking. His breathing became slower. Another System Window appeared.
[Congratulations on achieving your first victory, Awakener.]
Macarius didn’t read it. His vision had already begun fading. The letters in front of him blurred into pale blue shapes.
His consciousness slipped further away. He wanted to think. He wanted to understand. He wanted to know what the Tower was.
Who he was. Why he had been chosen. What his strange power meant. Why that woman had called him her son. But his mind could no longer hold the questions.
His eyelids closed. The last thing he felt was the cool grass beneath his cheek. Then everything disappeared into darkness.