"Huff… Huff…"
Edison and the hunter both dragged in deep, ragged breaths as they watched the giant Druvask crash to the ground with a heavy thud .
For a moment, neither of them moved.
The beast lay sprawled across the snow, its massive body still heaving weakly. Each breath forced a wet gurgle from his throat. Blood seeped steadily from the gaping wound in its side where the broken spear had been driven deep, soaking the snow beneath it.
With every inhale, more blood bubbled from its mouth.
It's not quite dead yet.
Edison kept his eyes on it for another few seconds before slowly turning his head, scanning the clearing.
His hammer lay several meters away, half-buried in the snow beside a battered tree trunk—flung there when he threw it against the charging Druvask.
He pressed his hand against his left shoulder.
The wound where the tusk had pierced him was still bleeding, though not as badly as before. Warm blood seeped between his fingers, but the flow had already begun to slow.
Hyper Adaptability was doing its work.
Sooner or later the bleeding would stop on its own.
Edison secretly let out a small sigh of relief.
He really didn't want to cauterize the wound.
"Even if you want to, I would highly suggest against it."
Guide's voice suddenly chimed in again.
"Burning wounds may stop bleeding temporarily. If you don't properly treat the burn afterwards, you will likely die from severe infection instead. Which, statistically speaking, is far more painful than bleeding out."
Edison frowned slightly.
"You sure are yapping a lot for someone who went completely mute during that entire fight."
Guide sounded almost offended.
"It is simply not part of my job. Remember, I am here to guide you on your adventure and occasionally provide timely advice and wisdom."
"I am not your bodyguard or personal guardian."
The guide continued calmly.
"Besides, I would say you performed quite well for your first real-life combat encounter. All those survival scenarios from challenge mode appear to have paid off."
Edison let out a tired breath through his nose.
"…Yeah. Sure."
He turned to look at the hunter.
The man held his injured left arm. Frost clung to his light leather armor and the blue scarf wrapped around his neck. His breathing was just as ragged as Edison's, chest rising and falling heavily in the cold air.
Noticing Edison's gaze, the man turned his head and looked back at him.
For a moment, neither of them spoke.
Edison gave a small nod of gratitude.
The hunter returned the gesture.
Nothing more needed to be said.
Edison turned his attention back to the fallen Druvask and began limping toward his hammer. He kept a careful distance from the beast as he approached.
If the monster somehow managed a last desperate lunge, he wouldn't have the strength left to stop it.
The hammer lay half-buried beside the tree. Edison bent down carefully and picked it up with his right arm which was mostly intact.
Dragging it behind him, he slowly made his way toward the Druvask.
He stopped a few feet away and looked down.
The giant beast was in terrible shape now. Its breathing had turned shallow and uneven, each inhale rattling wetly in its throat. Its eyes rolled upward, barely focused.
"Looks like it won't even have the strength to come at you for a last-ditch effort," Guide remarked in his head.
"Seems like it," Edison replied quietly.
He studied the creature for another second.
Then, resisting the sharp pain shooting through his shoulder, he bit down on his lip and lifted the hammer with both hands. The movement made his wounded arm tremble, but he forced it steady.
What little mana he had left flowed into the weapon.
The runes glowed faintly, this time in a pale blue hue.
Edison raised the hammer over his head.
Then he brought it down.
"THUD."
The blow landed squarely on the Druvask's skull.
The impact caved part of the massive head inward with a sickening crunch.
Blood splattered across the snow as the beast's body finally went still.
Edison let out a long, heavy breath.
"You are one tough son of a bitch…" he murmured.
Guide spoke again in his head.
"It seems the spear you drove in punctured its stomach. You were quite lucky."
Edison snorted faintly.
"Luck is also a skill, ya know?"
He crouched down beside the corpse and narrowed his eyes, feeling the faint traces of mana still lingering around the Druvask's massive body.
"Still," Edison muttered, "I didn't know Druvasks could use magic like that."
"Yes, you did," Guide replied calmly. "Some Druvasks can use a small amount of true ice magic. You simply forgot."
Edison blinked.
For a second, he was completely speechless.
Before he could fire back a reply, Guide suddenly hummed thoughtfully.
"Hm?"
"What is it?" Edison asked.
"I believe you may want to check its stomach."
"Why?"
"There is an unusual gathering of mana there."
Edison paused.
Immediately, he extended his senses again.
Sure enough—
The scattered traces of mana still clinging to the Druvask's body were slowly drifting inward, converging toward one spot deep within its abdomen.
"…You're right."
He planted the hammer upright in the snow beside him and crouched down next to the massive wound where the spear had entered.
Grimacing slightly, Edison grabbed the torn flesh and pulled the wound wider.
A wave of heat and the thick metallic smell of blood rolled out.
"Ugh… I can never get used to this."
He swallowed and reached inside.
Warm blood soaked his arm as he pushed deeper, feeling around carefully toward the source of the mana.
"What are you doing?"
The hunter had walked closer as he watched Edison elbow-deep inside the corpse.
"There's… something…" Edison muttered.
His fingers suddenly brushed against something long and solid.
He frowned slightly.
It was the broken shaft that was still lodged deep inside.
Realizing that meant he was already close to the stomach, Edison pushed his hand even deeper past it.
A moment later, his fingers touched something else.
A lump about the size of a football.
"Okay..."
With a grunt, he worked his hand around it and slowly pulled the object free from the beast's body.
Edison looked down.
In his blood- soaked hands was a strange yellowish mass. It was uneven and slick with gore. He wiped away the blood and stomach acid clinging to it against the snow.
Slowly, its shape became clearer.
It looked like a chunk of amber.
Yellowish. Semi-transparent. Roughly the size of a football.
He could feel it immediately.
Not only was the lingering mana from the Druvask's body drifting towards it— this thing was also releasing mana on its own.
Almost like it was breathing.
"Guide," Edison muttered, turning it over in his hands. "You have any idea what this is?"
Silence.
"Guide?"
Still nothing.
"Anyone home?"
After several seconds, Guide finally responded.
"… It's an item."
Edison blinked.
"What ?"
"It is an item," Guide clarified. "A system-created item, specifically."
Edison froze.
"Wait."
His head snapped up slightly.
"What do you mean system-created ?"
The implication hit him almost immediately.
"You mean this thing was created by a system?" Edison said slowly. " A system like you? There are other systems??"
Now Edison's head was spinning.
Did that mean there were other people like him in this world?
Other people who had been transported here?
The guide answered calmly.
"Yes."
Then paused.
"... But I don't understand."
Edison frowned.
"What do you mean you don't understand?"
Guide continued after a short silence.
"An item like this is not supposed to be here. It is not native to this world."
Edison stared down at the glowing amber.
"What does that mean?"
"I cannot disclose that information," Guide replied. " You are not yet qualified to know."
Edison's brow twitched.
He looked at the amber again.
Others like me…?
He didn't know whether that thought made him relieved or uncomfortable.
"... Fine," he muttered. " Then can you at least tell me what kind of item this is?"
Guide paused again before answering.
"What you are holding is not the item."
Edison blinked.
"The amber-like structure is the shell," Guide continued. "The actual item is inside it."
Edison turned the strange object over in his hands again, inspecting it from different angles.
"There's an item in here, huh..."
Without another word, he channeled a thin stream of Primordial Flame into his palm and pressed it against the amber.
Cracks immediately began forming across the surface.
"Wait—what are you doing?" Guide suddenly said, sounding alarmed.
"Breaking it," Edison replied casually, not stopping.
" You said it's a system-created item, right?" he continued. " If I remember correctly, you said systems only create things that are helpful to us."
"That is true, but—"
"Then it's fine!"
-----
A few more seconds passed.
Thin cracks spread across the amber like a spider web.
Then—
Crack.
The shell split apart.
A soft gust of pure mana leaked out from the opening, drifting into the cold air like fine sand pouring from a broken bottle.
Edison blinked.
"Huh. That was surprisingly easy."
The amber pieces crumbled apart in his hands. He brushed the fragments away and looked inside.
The structure really was like a shell.
The interior was filled with dense, pale mana— almost like thick liquid light. It clung to the object inside the way egg white surrounded by a yolk.
At the center was something thin and rolled up.
Edison carefully reached in and picked it up.
The moment his fingers touched it—
A translucent window suddenly appeared in front of his eyes.
The familiar blue interface hovered silently in the air.
And at the top of the window:
[ Sullivan's Journal ]