Ryan's lungs burned as he jogged up the sandy slope toward the center of white washed villas overlooking the valley. His backpack slammed against his spine with each step, and the rifle, a tool he had no real training, felt awkward in his grip.
He scanned the villas, his Death sight active. The ability painted the world in shades of life and decay, turning the ruins into something like night-vision feed, except instead of heat, it showed him the faint essence of existence itself.
The place looked like a war zone. Windows shattered, furniture thrown into the sand, and blood streaked across the walls, looking like someone had clawed their way out, or tried to.
"Awesome," Ryan muttered softly. "Definitely the perfect spot for a vacation. Five stars. Would stay again, for real."
He was trying for sarcasm, but the words felt hollow in his throat. Every sound set him on edge. The loose flap of a window shutter banging in the wind, the distant crackle of fire, and then, there was the shriek. It was an inhuman wail that echoed from somewhere out in the desert, making his stomach clench tight.
He pressed himself flat against the wall of the nearest villa, trying to peek through a broken window frame. The rifle accidentally scraped against the iron bench under the window, and he winced, freezing in place.
"Idiot…" he cursed himself, holding his breath. And there was nothing. Just the wind, the fire, and distant screams. He was alone.
The front door hung half-open, creaking back and forth, scraping at his nerves.
"Yeah, this is like horror movie bait," he whispered, his voice full of tension. "'Don't go in there, idiot!' Everyone watching this mess would say."
But he had to. After seeing what happened to all the people at the tomb's entrance, he couldn't just walk away. He had to know if anyone had survived this mess.
He raised the rifle halfway, his finger hovering just above the trigger. He had no idea how to use it properly, but holding it made him feel slightly less like monster food.
Stepping inside, the smell hit him first, the heavy scent of old blood. The villa's interior was even worse than the outside. Tables were overturned, a half-eaten meal was scattered across the floor, swarming with flies. Blood was spattered in abstract streaks across the white wall.
Ryan swallowed hard, forcing down the bile rising in his throat. His hands trembled, but he tightened his grip on the gun and pushed farther inside. Every survival instinct he had was screaming at him to run back into the desert, and never look back, but he couldn't. He had to know if anyone had survived.
A sound stopped him cold.
It wasn't one of the monster shrieks. It was softer. A muffled whimper, like a kitten in a box.
Ryan froze, his heart slamming against his ribs like a trapped bird. He took a shallow breath and called out, his voice rougher and louder than he intended. "Hello?"
The silence that followed was heavy, then he heard it again, another small whimper, coming from deeper inside the villa.
"Holy shit…" His chest tightened. His Death Sight picked up a flare of life-force among the gloom of the dead. Someone was alive.
"…someone's actually—"
He moved forward, shoving a broken armchair out of his path with a loud scrape. The whimper cut off abruptly, but Ryan found the source under a heavy, overturned dining table.
A little girl, maybe eight years old, was huddled in the darkness beneath it. Her dress was torn and smeared with dirt and dried blood, but her huge eyes locked onto him with fear.
Ryan froze, slowly lowered the rifle until the barrel pointed at the dusty floor.
"Hey," he whispered, trying to keep his voice soft and steady, which was hard when his own adrenaline was screaming. "It's okay. I'm not… uh… I'm not here to hurt you."
The girl didn't move. She just stared at him, her tiny hands clutching a stuffed rabbit that was missing one ear.
He tried again, forcing a small, hopefully reassuring smile. "My name's Ryan," he said softly. "What's yours?"
She blinked once. Twice. Her gaze darted from his face to the rifle, then back again. Finally, she whispered so softly he almost missed it. "Mila."
Ryan let out a shaky breath he hadn't realized he was holding. "Okay, Mila. That's a cool name. So, uh… we should probably get you out of here before—"
The air in the room shifted. It grew cold, heavy, and fundamentally wrong. Ryan's stomach dropped as his Death sight caught something moving in the doorway behind him. Something big, and full of an essence that felt like death itself.
The creature had to duck its head to get through the villa's broken doorframe.
Ryan's throat went dry.
It stood at least seven feet tall, with skin stretched gray and thin over bones that seemed to bend at unnatural angles. Its eyes burned red, and its long claws clicked against the tiled floor. The smell hit him next. A foul wave of rot, wet earth, and the coppery tang of blood.
"Oh, fuck me," Ryan breathed.
The ghoul tilted its head, its nostrils flaring as it sniffed the air, a low growl rumbling in its chest. Then its gaze scanned the room and locked on Mila under the table.
Her whimper turned into a high-pitched scream.
Ryan's brain went into overdrive, screaming the obvious. 'Run. Get out. Hide. Do literally anything except fight that thing.'
But Mila was right there, she couldn't run, and if he bolted, he knew he'd hear her screams for the rest of his life, however short that was. He couldn't live with that.
Ryan tightened his grip on the rifle. He yelled, "Hey, ugly! Over here!"
The ghoul's head snapped toward him. It hissed, its thin lips peeling back to reveal a row of jagged, broken teeth stained with something dark.
Ryan didn't wait for an invitation, and pulled the trigger.
The rifle kicked back so hard it nearly dislocated his shoulder, and sent a shock of pain through his whole body. The shot went wide, blasting a chunk of plaster off the wall a foot to the creature's left.
"Great aim, champ," Ryan grunted, fumbling with the heavy gun.
But the ghoul didn't give him a second chance. It lunged at him.
Ryan barely managed to dive aside as those claws slashed through the air where his chest had been just a second before. He hit the floor hard, and the impact made the rifle clattering away. Pain flared up his ribs.
The creature screeched in anger, spinning on him with terrifying speed. As it lunged again, Ryan's fingers closed around a thick metal bar with chunks of rubble from the roof still clinging to it. He swung it with every ounce of strength he had.
CLANG!
The steel bar smashed into the ghoul's jaw with a sickening crack of bone, and chunks of rubble broke loose. The creature staggered back, hissing in a mixture of pain and fury, its head lolling to one side.
Ryan staggered to his feet, adrenaline temporarily drowning out the fear and pain. "Yeah? How'd you like that? Not so fun when someone swings back, huh?"
The ghoul just shook its head and lunged again, faster this time. Ryan braced himself, ducking low and ramming the crowbar into its ribs. The impact jarred his arms, but the monster barely flinched.
Instead, it backhanded him. The blow caught him square in the chest, and it felt like being hit by a car. Pain exploded through him as he was thrown across the room, crashing hard into a wall before slumping to the floor. His vision swam with black spots, and the taste of blood filled his mouth.
'I'm dead. And the eight-year-old gets eaten because I was too damn slow and stupid.'
As the ghoul loomed over him with its claws raised for the final strike, something deep inside him sparked. It wasn't his own energy.
A panel of golden light flashed before him.
[Essence Siphon Activated.]
Ryan gasped as his vision sharpened, overlaid by the filter of his Death Sight. Threads of black-gold light, invisible to the naked eye but blazing brightly to him, stretched out from the ghoul and connected to his chest. The monster staggered back, suddenly disoriented. Its movements became jerky and uncertain. It clawed at the air, trying to bat away the invisible tendrils that were draining its power.
Ryan felt its energy flow into him, a cold fire that coursed through his veins. His wounds didn't vanish, but the pain dulled, and his strength surged, flooding his exhausted body.
The ghoul screeched, confused and weakened. Ryan didn't give it a second to recover. He launched himself forward from the ground, the steel bar raised high, and drove the sharp end deep into the monster's throat.
The creature convulsed, a choked gurgle escaping its lips as its life-force bled out, flowing into Ryan. Then it collapsed in a twitching heap on the floor.
Ryan stood over it, his chest heaving. The steel bar was slick with black, oily ichor. His hands were shaking so hard he could barely keep his grip on it.
"…holy shit," he whispered, not letting the steel bar go from its throat.
The ghoul's corpse twitched one last time and then went still. The last threads of its Mortuary Essence swirled into Ryan, vanishing inside him like smoke sucked into a vacuum.
A moment later, a golden panel flared in front of his vision, bright and clear as a computer screen.
[Essence Siphon Activated]
[Enemy Defeated: Ghoul (Undead, Rank E)]
[Mortuary Essence Gained: +12 ME]
[Experience Gained: 6]
[Undead Multiplier Applied ×1.5 → Total: +9]
[Bonus Triggered: First Unique Absorption → +85 EXP]
[Level Up!]
[Level 1 → 2]
[Rank E → Rank E+]
[Statistics Increased]
Ryan just gaped at the floating text. "Oh my god. Did I just… level up? Like in a video game?"
He dragged a bloody hand down his face, smearing dirt and sweat. "This is actually happening. I'm grinding XP by killing zombie freaks. Shit's crazy."
A small sound made him turn. Mila was crawling out from under the table, her eyes wide with horror. She clutched her one-eared rabbit tight, her gaze fixed on the monster's corpse.
Ryan forced a smile, though it felt cracked and unnatural on his face. "It's okay. It's dead. I… uh… I got it."
Her lowered lip trembled. "Are… are more coming?"
Ryan looked at the broken doorway, at the ruined valley beyond still bathed in that sickly green twilight from the Gate in the sky.
"Yeah," he admitted softly, seeing no point in lying to her. "Probably."
He crouched down, trying to meet her eyes without towering over her. "But we're not gonna let them get us, okay? You stick with me, and we survive this mess. Deal?"
She hesitated for a long moment, then gave a slow but firm nod.
Ryan let out a long, shuddering breath. He stood up and yanked the steel bar free from the ghoul's throat with a wet squelch. His hands still shook, but he forced them steady.
The system's golden panel still hovered in his mind's eye, patiently waiting. With a simple thought he dismissed it.
"Alright," he said, glancing from Mila to the corpses. "Let's find somewhere a bit safer. Night is falling soon."