HP: 17/60
Stamina: 28%
Status: [Open Wound - Right Shoulder] [Mutation: Neural Bloom Lv. 1] [Corruption: 2%]
The pain should've knocked me out. I was pretty sure a hole had been torn straight through my shoulder. Every breath lit a fire in my ribs. But I couldn't stop.
The girl—she was still unconscious. Limp in my arms as I stumbled forward through the corridor of pulsing red walls. The dungeon's heartbeat thudded louder now, like it had noticed me bleeding on its floors.
"Just a little further," I muttered, more to myself than to her.
The tunnel twisted, then opened into a hollow chamber. A feeding den. Bones, rotting meat, and... sacks. Like cocoons, hanging from the ceiling.
[New Location Discovered: Husk Nest]
The HUD flickered in front of my eye, grainy and glitching. Blood loss? Or maybe the mutation. Neural Bloom—it had embedded something in my mind. I could feel it twitching every time I looked at her.
Not with hunger. With... familiarity.
I laid her down on a chunk of dead chitin and stumbled back, gripping my shoulder. My fingers came away slick.
"Inventory," I croaked.
The grid blinked open. No bandages. Just monster drops, a rusty dagger, and the squirming black shard I yanked from the slug-thing earlier. It pulsed in my hand like a second heartbeat.
[Item: Corrupted Core (Lesser)]
Description: Contains adaptive traits. Use at your own risk.
I hesitated. Then shoved it against my chest.
The shard melted into my skin.
I screamed.
Fire surged through my bloodstream. My veins felt like they were being rewritten. For a second, I couldn't see. Couldn't breathe. Couldn't be.
Then it passed.
[New Mutation Acquired: Skinweaver - Lv. 1]
Effect: Converts biomass into temporary regenerative armor. Scales with Corruption.
Armor. I looked down.
My shoulder had stopped bleeding. Something dark and flexible covered the wound, stitched together by threads of black tissue. Living armor. Breathing.
My stomach turned.
I stumbled to the girl's side. She was still out cold, her pulse shallow but steady. Her skin shimmered faintly, the same shade of pale silver that had marked her as not normal. Like me.
"Who are you?" I whispered.
And why do you feel like a mirror?
Suddenly, something in the chamber moved.
Not her. Behind.
I turned.
From the far end of the nest, one of the hanging sacks began to split. Wet threads tore open. A limb spilled out—too long, too thin. Then another.
[New Enemy Detected: Huskbrood Scion – Lv. 5]
It dropped to the floor with a wet thud, rising on reversed limbs. No eyes. Just a slitted face that opened like a blooming flower.
HP: ???
Aggro: LOCKED
I raised the dagger.
"Come on then."
It moved.
Too fast.
I barely ducked as its claw slashed the air where my throat had been. I rolled, grabbing a bone off the floor, and threw it. It struck the thing's chest with a crunch, but it didn't flinch.
[Skinweaver Active: Biomass Detected Nearby]
The dungeon wanted me to fight. Wanted to feed me power if I played its game.
Fine.
I lunged, slashing at the Scion's limb. The dagger glanced off chitin, but some of its flesh tore. I kicked it back, scooped up a chunk of something—meat? Maybe—and slapped it to my arm.
[Skinweaver +1 | Temporary Defense Boosted]
I fought like a cornered animal.
We circled. I bled. I bit. I burned. And finally, with a scream that wasn't fully mine, I drove the dagger into the slit of its face.
The Scion shrieked and collapsed into steaming gore.
[Enemy Defeated: Huskbrood Scion]
+42 XP
Level Up Available!
I slumped beside the girl, panting.
"Status."
HP: 9/70
Stamina: 14%
Corruption: 4%
I should've felt proud. I just felt less human.
The neural bloom behind my eye twitched again. And I understood something I shouldn't have:
She was changing too.
And she might not wake up the same.
My thoughts twisted into knots as I stared at her. The HUD occasionally blinked and shimmered, glitching each time it hovered over her unconscious body. Text flickered at the corner of my vision, too fast to read. Foreign code? Language? A warning?
Her chest rose. Fell. Her breathing was still rhythmic. But her veins—there was something wrong. Silver lines glowed under her skin in pulses, like light trapped in blood. Like a mutation blooming.
Was she even human anymore?
Was I?
A deep rumble echoed from the far side of the nest. The sacks above quivered. One dropped to the ground with a wet thud, but didn't burst open.
Not yet.
I had minutes. Maybe less.
"Level up," I said through gritted teeth.
[Distribute Stat Points – 5 Available]
Strength: 3 → 4
Endurance: 4 → 6
Confirmed. I instantly felt the difference. My heart hit harder. My muscles knit together faster. The armor spread slightly, feeding on the ambient biomass.
But I wasn't done.
I limped toward the corpse of the Scion and shoved my hand into its remains.
[Extracting...]
[New Material Acquired: Husk Chitin – Reactive Grade]
[New Mutation Unlocked (Locked – Requirements not met)]
Figures. Still, I wrapped a few strips of chitin around my forearm. Crude armor, but it'd buy me a second if another thing jumped out.
Behind me, the girl let out a sound—a low, rasping breath that sounded like grinding stone.
I turned.
Her eyes fluttered open.
And they weren't human anymore.