The cavern was not silent.
Vel had thought so at first—when he had risen in this brittle cage of ivory, when he had stumbled like a newborn beast of bone. He had thought the only sounds were the drip of unseen water and the scrape of his own skeletal frame.
But now, he heard more.
Clattering. Low rattles. Shuffling echoes that reverberated through the labyrinthine tunnels. It was a language of bone upon stone, an orchestra of corpses. His sockets narrowed, luminous sparks of pale light within them pulsing like breaths he no longer possessed.
Others.
He was not alone.
Vel gripped his battered sword tighter. His new fingers—bare phalanges bound together by necrotic will—clasped the hilt with awkward strength. His earlier training had taught him one thing: his bones would not tire. But his form was brittle, fragile. He was no warrior of flesh anymore, only a husk.
Yet hunger stirred. Not in stomach—he had none. It was deeper, an itch in marrowless bones. A pressure at the back of his skull. The System's silent promise, whispering of evolution.
Kill. Consume. Evolve.
The sound grew closer. Shuffling footsteps, dragging, scraping. Then—from the corridor of darkness—a figure lurched into sight.
It was like him.
A skeleton.
But where Vel's movements carried the remnants of awareness, this one shambled with blind obedience. Its empty sockets glowed with dull necrotic fire, a slave to the lingering magic of the lich who had birthed it. Rust clung to the jagged blade in its hand. Bones were yellowed, cracked, half-bound by the filth of the grave.
It saw him. Or sensed him. And with a clattering screech, it charged.
Vel froze for a heartbeat. This was his reflection—mockery of what he was. His mind screamed that he should hesitate, should recoil from the sight of what he had become.
But his body did not hesitate.
His bones bent, his blade raised, instincts carved in human life bleeding through into his unlife. He parried the skeleton's wild swing. Steel screamed on steel, sparks spraying into the cavern's darkness.
The impact should have numbed his arm, rattled his bones. But no muscle trembled. No tendons tore. His bones carried the force like stone pillars, unyielding.
Vel roared—though no sound left his skull. Only his mind echoed, rage bleeding through the hollow cavity. He shoved, driving the skeleton back. His sword slashed across its ribcage, splintering brittle ivory.
The thing shrieked. A sound like knives on glass, no throat to birth it, only necrotic energy vibrating through its bones. It staggered, then lunged again, blade thrusting toward Vel's skull.
Vel twisted. His body moved awkwardly, jerky, unnatural. But he was learning. He ducked, letting the blade screech across the cavern wall. Sparks lit the chamber in brief, hellish flashes.
His counterstrike came down in a vicious arc. His sword split the enemy's arm at the elbow. Bone fragments scattered across the floor. The creature reeled, but pressed forward, clawing with its remaining hand, jaws snapping with unnatural hunger.
Vel slammed his skeletal forehead into its skull. Bone cracked against bone. Fractures webbed across the enemy's cranium. Vel followed through with a brutal hack of his sword. Steel crunched through vertebrae.
The skeleton's head tumbled from its shoulders. The body collapsed in a rain of clattering fragments.
Silence followed, thick and oppressive.
Vel stood still. His sockets flared, watching the twitching remnants of his foe. His hand trembled—not from fatigue, but from something else. A shudder that ran through his entire frame.
And then—
DING.
A voice. A whisper not in his ears, but inside his mind. Cold. Mechanical. Divine in its indifference.
[System Notification]Enemy defeated.+2 Evolution Points (EP) gained.+1 Absorption Point (AP) gained.
First Kill Bonus triggered.Rewards doubled.+4 EP.+2 AP.
Total EP: 4Total AP: 2
Vel froze. The words carved themselves into the hollow of his mind, undeniable, absolute. His sockets widened, the faint lights within pulsing violently.
"First kill…"
Something writhed inside his chest cavity, not flesh, not organ—just a sensation. The System's reward sunk into him, embedding itself in marrow that no longer existed. He could feel strength trickling through bone.
But it was not done.
Another notification pulsed like a hammer against his consciousness.
[System Prompt]Would you like to upgrade your skeletal arm with Evolution Points?
Cost: 4 EP.Result: Enhanced Arm (increased grip strength, reinforced bone durability).
Confirm? [Yes / No]
Vel stared at the phantom script glowing within his mind. His sockets fell upon his right arm—the one that still gripped his battered sword. Cracks marred its surface from earlier, tiny fractures threatening collapse.
The System offered him more. To change. To strengthen.
But the cost…
Vel tightened his grip on the sword. His bones did not ache. His stamina was infinite. And yet, fragility haunted him. The memory of his hand cracking simply from holding steel burned in his mind.
If his arm broke in battle, he would fall.
"…Yes."
He thought the word.
And the System obeyed.
[Upgrade Confirmed]Right Arm: Enhanced.
Effects:
Grip strength increased.Bone density doubled.Structural durability reinforced.
Agony bloomed.
Not fleshly agony, not blood and nerve and screaming sinew. It was deeper, stranger—the pain of transformation, of bones twisting, reforming, shattering and reforging in the same instant. His arm trembled violently. Cracks burst across its length, glowing with searing light.
Vel staggered, slamming his free hand against the wall. His sword nearly fell from his grip—but then the pain shifted. It sharpened, hardened. His arm sealed itself, ivory knitting into denser, darker material. The fractures vanished.
And when the light dimmed, his arm remained. Changed. Stronger. A subtle metallic gleam clung to the surface, unnatural resilience radiating from it.
Vel flexed his fingers. The sword hilt creaked beneath his grip, leather grinding beneath sharpened force.
"…Stronger."
The word echoed hollowly, but certainty anchored it.
He looked down at the shattered remains of his foe. Bone fragments scattered across the cavern floor. In life, he might have felt guilt, pity, or perhaps nothing at all—it had only been another corpse.
But now, it was different.
This kill had not only been survival. It had been progress.
The System rewarded him. Every enemy was fuel. Every life he crushed was a step forward.
Vel bent down, staring at the fragments of his slain kin. His sockets glowed brighter.
"Not human… not anymore."
The words were not despair now. They were an oath.
"I will kill. I will evolve. Until nothing can break me."
The cavern remained silent save for the drip of water. But Vel felt it, deep within—the path he had been cast onto. A path painted in bones, sharpened by steel, and driven by hunger eternal.
The first kill was done. And it would not be the last.