Malachai stepped through the wound in the world.
The moment his boot crossed the boundary, the air changed. It became thick and wet, like breathing through a soaked rag. A heavy scent of copper, mold, and meat pressed against his senses. The light bent strangely, casting long, twitching shadows that refused to remain still.
The dungeon was not stone or ruin.
It was flesh.
The walls pulsed, damp with a glistening sheen that dripped foul ichor. Veins as thick as ropes slithered across the floor and ceiling, twitching at his passing. The very ground quivered when he walked, soft and yielding beneath his boots, as if stepping on a living thing that resented his touch.
He moved slowly.
Carefully.
His claws extended. The Veil hummed against his back.
And then, something screamed.
The first creature lunged from a crevice in the wall—a Hollow-Toothed Wretch, its face stretched into a permanent scream, lined with rows of needle-like teeth. Its spine bent backward. Fingers too long clawed through the air with wet slaps.
Malachai struck.
Predatory Insight flared.
The world slowed. Veins of crimson light crawled across the creature’s frame—weak points highlighted in twitching pulses. The joints. The throat. The exposed organ below its ribcage.
He moved like a scalpel.
One claw into the base of the throat. Blood sprayed.
Another slash across the ribs, cracking them open like wet sticks. The creature shrieked, trying to flee.
He didn’t let it.
He drove his claws into the weak point below its lung and pulled, ripping out a twitching, black organ that steamed in the air.
The Wretch collapsed in a pool of viscera.
He crouched and sliced the chest open fully, digging through broken ribs and bile.
There it was.
A mana crystal, still warm. Cloudy blue. He wiped it on the creature’s skin and pocketed it.
---
Trait Fragment Acquired: Hollow-Toothed Wretch (1)
+1 Reflex
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Dread Pulse upgraded to Dread Pulse (Tier II)
Psychic shock now causes hallucinations and confusion in weaker enemies. Radius doubled.
---
He moved deeper.
The corridors changed.
The walls became lined with mouths. Some whispering. Some weeping. Others gnashing teeth silently. They followed his movement.
He entered a wider chamber where the ceiling dripped long strands of mucus-like thread. A clicking echoed around him.
And then it dropped.
A Skinned Widow.
Once humanoid. Now stripped of all skin, glistening red, muscles twitching across a skeletal frame. It moved like a spider, backwards and erratic, limbs cracking with every shift. Hooks jutted from its knees and elbows. Its mouth opened vertically down its throat.
It shrieked and charged.
Malachai flared Dread Pulse (Tier II).
A ripple of psychic force exploded from his chest.
The Widow staggered. Its footing faltered. It saw a dozen Malachais in its blurred vision.
He used that second.
Shade Step.
Reappeared behind it.
Predatory Insight locked in.
He aimed for the spine.
His claw pierced between vertebrae. The Widow convulsed violently. Blood sprayed in thick, arterial arcs.
It flipped and slashed wildly. One hook caught his side, tearing a gash across his ribs.
He grunted. Twisted away.
He ducked under the next slash and drove his claws through the base of its neck. He pressed his foot against its back and pulled.
The head came free.
He searched the body.
Three blackened mana crystals lodged behind the heart. A writhing bone shard that throbbed with latent magic.
---
Trait Fragment Acquired: Skinned Widow (1)
Ability Unlocked: Crimson Hookstep
Dash forward with a spinning slash. Deals heavy bleeding and grants temporary damage resistance.
---
Item Found: Widow’s Shard (Uncommon Weapon Component)
Embedded with blood-bound enchantments. Can be used to upgrade bleeding-type weapons.
---
He moved on, breath harsh, wound pulsing.
He devoured the Wretch’s corpse using Feast of the Slain, letting its fear and blood knit his wound closed. Strength returned. Vision sharpened.
The Veil was pleased.
Farther in, he found a spire of bone protruding from the wall, studded with crystals. A corpse slumped nearby, half-consumed. Malachai pried a jagged bone ring from the corpse’s hand.
---
Item Acquired: Bone Ring of the Forgotten
+1 Willpower, +1 Vitality. Occasionally whispers insight about dungeon pathways.
---
He slipped it on.
The ring hissed. The bone fused to his finger, locking into place like it had always belonged.
The path twisted left.
Screams echoed again.
And Malachai smiled through the blood.
The Reaperborn was just getting started.
